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HOME   DECUKATION. 


[Page  420. 


POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN 


OF  ALL  TIMES  AND  NATIONS 


WITH  TABLES   OF  FACTORY  AND  ARTISTS'  MARKS 
FOR  THE  USE  OF  COLLECTORS 


By    WILLIAM     C.    PRIME     LL.D. 


NEW    Y  O  R  K 
HARPER    &     BROTHERS,    PUBLISHERS 


FRANKLIN     SQUARE 


1878 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  IS77,  by 

HARPER    &    BROTHERS, 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


PREFACE. 


Ten  years  ago  there  were  probably  not  ten  collectors  of  Pottery  and  Porcelain 
in  the  United  States.  To-day  there  are  perhaps  ten  thousand.  The  exhibition  in 
public  museums  of  the  fine  works  of  ceramic  art  loaned  by  the  few  collectors  who 
possessed  them,  revealed  for  the  first  time  to  the  American  public  the  wealth  of 
beauty  which  is  in  "  old  china ;"  and  now  in  nearly  every  city,  town,  and  village  in 
the  land  more  or  less  persons  are  "  collecting." 

The  need  of  a  book  of  the  kind  which  I  have  endeavored  to  make  has  been 
manifest  for  some  time.  What  to  collect  and  why,  how  to  collect  and  classify, 
are  questions  asked  by  many,  and  answered  only  by  European  works,  in  French  and 
English,  which  indeed  answer  the  questions  better  than  this  does,  but  are  unfortu- 
nately inaccessible  to  the  American  collector  outside  of  our  larger  cities. 

The  preparation  of  the  needed  volume  has  not  been  a  voluntary  undertaking 
with  me.  It  was  with  extreme  reluctance  that  I  yielded  to  the  urgent  request  of 
the  publishers  to  make  a  book  on  Ceramic  Art  for  American  readers,  students,  and 
collectors.  The  very  idea  of  a  book  for  these  three  classes  of  people  might  well  ap- 
pall an  author,  looking  at  the  vast  extent  of  the  subject.  Those  who  are  familiar 
with  the  art  will  appreciate  the  impossibility  of  bringing  into  one  volume  even  a 
condensed  sketch  of  its  history  for  the  general  reader,  much  more  a  critical  examina- 
tion of  its  products  for  the  student,  and  a  descriptive  account  of  characteristics  and 
marks  for  the  use  of  the  collector.  For  this  art  is  the  oldest,  the  longest,  the  most 
widely  diffused  of  all  human  arts.  It  has  been  used  by  every  tribe  of  man,  savage 
and  civilized.  Probably  the  first  fire  which  Adam  kindled  on  a  clay  soil  taught 
him  to  make  earthenware,  and  his  descendants  have  ever  since  used  the  art  he  dis- 
covered. Its  known  history  begins  with  the  brickmakers  on  the  plain  of  Shinar, 
and  every  year  of  this  nineteenth  century  after  Christ  adds  material  for  new  pages. 

The  utmost  that  can  be  done  with  such  a  subject  in  one  book  is  to  relate  brieflv 
those  portions  of  the  history  which  seem  most  important  to  the  American  public 
who  have  not  access  to,  or  the  time  to  read  and  study,  the  many  learned  and  valua- 
ble works  of  Europe  on  the  various  departments  of  the  art,  and  to  add  to  this  a 


PREFACE. 


slmrt  statement  of  the  date  of  foundation  and  the  characteristics  of  fabrics  of  the 
factories  whose  products  may  fall  into  the  hands  of  American  collectors.  This  1 
have  endeavored  to  accomplish.  Much  has.  of  course,  been  omitted  which  some 
will  think  ought  to  he  found  here,  and  space  has  been  devoted  to  departments 
which  others  will  think  unimportant.  Probably  no  author  could  avoid  this.  I 
have  exercised  my  best  judgment,  seeking  always  to  keep  visible  the  connecting 
links  in  the  long  history. 

No  one  will  imagine  that  this  book  can  be  intended  to  supersede  the  learned 
and  invaluable  works  of  Messrs.  Birch,  Jacquemart,  Marryat,  Chaffers,  Fort- 
nt  m,  and  others,  to  whose  investigations  we  are  largely  indebted  for  the  sum  of  our 
present  knowledge  of  ceramic  art,  and  whose  books  have  necessarily  furnished  a 
large  amount  of  the  material  in  the  present  volume.  The  student  who  begins  the 
subject  with  what  I  furnish  him  will,  of  course,  go  to  them  as  more  thorough  teach- 
ers. An  attempt  to  give  credit  to  each  authority  from  which  I  have  taken  a  state- 
ment so  embarrassed  the  pages  with  foot-notes  that  I  must  express  here  my  general 
indebtedness,  to  the  authors  above  named  especially,  and  also  to  others  whose  works 
are  mentioned  below ;  and  this  the  rather  that  in  many  instances,  finding  the  same 
important  fact  in  the  same  words  in  various  books,  it  wTas  impossible  to  determine 
the  proper  credit. 

The  tables  of  marks  and  monograms  at  the  end  of  the  volume  are  based  on 
Mrs.  Bury  Palisser\s  Hand-book,  in  European  departments,  and  on  the  Manual  of 
Messrs.  Hooper  &  Phillips,  in  Chinese  and  Japanese  art.  The  compilation  of  these 
extensive  dictionaries  is  the  result  of  the  labor  of  very  many  students  whose  works 
are  mentioned  in  the  list  below.  The  catalogue  of  authorities  consulted  is  given 
not  alone  for  the  purposes  of  this  acknowledgment,  but  also  for  the  information 
of  those  who  may  desire  to  pursue  the  study  of  the  subject.  The  attention  now 
given  to  ceramic  art  is  such  that  every  public  library  should  contain  these  books. 

I  have  written  on  the  theory  that  the  reader  knows  nothing  even  of  the  rudi- 
ments of  the  art,  and  have  tried  to  give  a  simple  and  intelligible  account  of  the  sev- 
eral departments,  so  that  the  book  may  be  of  interest  and  value  to  the  inexperienced 
possessor  of  a  few  inherited  specimens  of  old  china  or  crockery,  as  well  as  to  the 
laborious  collector.  In  selecting  specimens  for  illustration  from  my  own  and  other 
collections,  and  from  European  works,  it  seemed  to  give  greater  practical  value  to 
the  book  to  illustrate,  generally,  characteristic  work  of  various  countries  and  facto- 
ries such  as  collectors  may  hope  to  meet  with,  rather  than  curious,  rare,  and  su- 
perb products  of  the  art. 

In  expressing  opinions,  I  have  exercised  that  independence  which  I  have  sought 
a]>o  to  inculcate  in  the  American   reader.     The  student  has  here  excellent  oppor- 


PREFACE. 


tunity  for  forming  independent  tastes,  since  he  is  not  apt  to  be  guided  by  the  es- 
tablished opinions  which  prevail  where  the  subject  has  been  long  pursued,  and  col- 
lections have  been  formed  according  to  prevailing  ideas  of  beauty.  Doubtless  many 
will  wholly  disagree  with  the  opinions  expressed;  and  I  have  failed  in  my  purpose 
if  I  have  not  impressed  on  the  reader  the  importance,  in  art  study,  of  forming  opin- 
ions unbiassed  by  any  dictatorial  expressions  of  this  or  any  other  book.  The  study 
of  art  will  do  little  good  to  those  who  profess  to  admire  this  or  that  specimen,  class, 
or  style,  only  because  other  people  say  it  is  admirable. 

Prominent  defects  of  this  work  are  due  to  the  lamentable  fact  that  America 
possesses  so  few  public  collections  of  pottery  and  porcelain  to  which  an  author 
might  from  time  to  time  refer.  In  Phenician  and  archaic  Greek  work  the  Metro- 
politan Museum  of  Art  in  New  York  has  become  the  richest  institution  in  the 
world  by  the  acquisition  of  the  Cypriote  Collection  of  General  L.  P.  Di  Cesnola. 
The  limits  of  this  volume  have  forbidden  an  extended  notice  of  those  fabrics,  and 
I  have  only  attempted  a  general  classification  by  styles  of  pottery  and  decoration, 
as  an  aid  to  their  study,  indicating  briefly  the  new  and  important  light  which  they 
throw  on  the  early  history  of  Greek  art. 

In  Chinese  and  Japanese  art,  that  museum  has  been  happy  in  having  for  some 
time  in  the  loan  department  the  admirable  selections  from  the  collection  of  S.  P. 
Avery,  Esq.,  forming  an  illustrative  exhibition  not  surpassed  by  any  public  or  pri- 
vate collection  elsewhere.  The  fine  collection  of  Mr.  Robert  Hoe,  Jr.,  has  also  been 
an  important  source  of  information. 

In  all  other  departments  I  have  been  compelled  to  rely  on  memories  of  Euro- 
pean cabinets,  and  on  my  own  imperfect  collection,  which  is  occasionally  referred  to 
as  the  Trumbull-Prime  collection,  which  name  it  bears  in  memory  of  its  founder, 
who  was,  so  far  as  I  know,  the  first  lady,  and  perhaps  the  first  person,  in  America 
who  made  a  special  study  of  ceramic  art.  This  collection  has  enabled  me,  in  de- 
partments in  which  it  is  peculiarly  rich,  to  add  some  facts  to  the  general  sum  of 
knowledge  on  the  subject.  Had  I  the  assistance  of  her  superior  information,  pure 
taste,  and  unerring  judgment,  this  would  have  been  a  much  more  valuable  book;  for 
to  them  I  owe  all  that  I  know  of  the  subject.  If  my  work  accomplish  any  good 
or  confer  any  pleasure,  it  is  due  alone  to  that  memory  whose  constant  presence 
has  made  it  a  labor  of  love. 

W.  C.  P. 

Lonesome  Lake  Cabix,  August  8th,  1877. 


AUTHORITIES   CONSULTED. 


AUTHORITIES   CONSULTED. 

Birch  (Samcki.),  Histm-ii  <>f  Amir, it  I'offiri/.  London,  1873.  [An  exhaustive  work,  of  the  greatest 
learning  ami  ability ;  does  not  include  the  late  discoveries  in  Cyprus.] 

Brongniart  (Alex.),  Traite  des  Arts  Ceramiques.  Paris,  1854.  [In  two  volumes  of  text,  and 
atlas  of  plates.  A  thorough  treatise,  with  accounts  of  processes  in  various  countries  and  fac- 
tories, composition  of  pastes,  preparation  and  application  of  colors,  methods  of  manufacture, 
etc. ;  with  historical  notices.] 

Brongniart  (Alex.)  et  Riocreix  (P.),  Musle  Cermniyiie  </,  Sec  res.  [A  catalogue  of  the  museum 
at  Sevres,  with  colored  illustrations  of  many  hundred  specimens  of  ceramic  art  and  glass. 
Valuable  for  reference.     Early  copies  are  the  better  colored.] 

BoHN  (II.  G.),  Guidt  to  tht  Knowledge  of  Pottery  mid  Porcelain,  and  Other  Objects  of  Virtu.  Lon- 
don, 1857.  [A  catalogue  of  the  Bernal-collection  sale,  with  prices,  and  an  appendix  by  Mi. 
Bohn,  himself  an  extensive  collector.     Valuable  as  a  reference  for  prices.] 

BiNNS  (R.  W '. ),  .1  Century  of  Potting  in  Worcester.  London,  1865.  [A  new  and  enlarged  edition, 
with  additional  plates,  1877.  Large  paper  copies,  with  impressions  from  copperplates  used  for 
transfer-printing  at  Worcester  and  Caughley.     A  complete  history  of  Worcester  porcelain.] 

Cahpori  MM,  Notizie,  etc.,  della  Maiolica  e  del/a  Porcellana  de  Ferrara,  etc.  Modena,  1871.  [The 
Marquis  Campori  has  rendered  important  service  in  elucidating  the  early  history  of  porcelain- 
making  in  Italy  in  the  sixteenth  century,  the  first  European  porcelain.] 

Chaffers  (William),  Murks  and  Monograms  »n  Pottery  ami  Porcelain,  etc.  London,  1876.  [Mi-. 
Chaffers's  work  is  indispensable  to  the  collector.  It  is  a  marvel  of  patient  and  careful  labor, 
continued  from  edition  to  edition,  the  latest,  of  course,  always  the  best.  He  has  condensed  the 
marks  in  a  small  hand-book  ;  but  the  large  octavo  is  necessary  to  every  student.  We  are  in- 
debted to  it  for  much  material  in  the  present  volume.] 

Chaffers  (William),  The  Keramic  Gallery.  London,  1872.  [Five  hundred  illustrations  of  pottery 
and  porcelain.     Important  for  reference.] 

Demmin  (Auguste),  Guidt  </<  VAmateur  </<  Faiences  et  Porcelaines,  etc.  Paris,  1863.  [A  very  good 
book  of  reference  for  factories,  with  descriptions  of  characteristics ;  especially  thorough  on 
Germany  ami  Holland.     Not  to  be  relied  on  for  ancient  or  American  work.] 

Dayillieb  (J.  ft),  Histoiredes  Faiences  TRspano-Moresques.     Paris,  1861. 

Davillier  (J.  ft),  Histoin  des  Faiences,  etc.,  de  Mbustiers,  Marseille^,  etc.     Paris,  1863. 

Delange  (IL),  Recueil  a\  Toutes  les  Pieces  Connues,  etc.,  de  la  Faience  Franpaist  de  Henri  II.  et 
I)i,tn,  ih  Poictiers.     Paris,  1861. 

Delange,  Borneman,  et  Sauzay,  Monographie  d,  VQSuvre  de  Bernard  Palissy,  etc.  Paris,  1862, 
[Plates  designed  by  Carle  Delange  and  ('.  Borneman  ;  text  by  Sauzay  and  Henri  Delange.] 

Delange,  Borneman,  et  Darcel,  Recueil  d,  Faiences  Italicunes,  etc  Paris,  l,xr,c.i.  [Plates  by  Carle 
Delange  and  ft  Borneman;  text  by  A.  Darcel  and  Henri  Delange.  These  superb  works  of 
luxury  illustrate  in  colors  some  hundred  specimens,  many  in  full  size  of  the  originals.] 

Dkakk  (W.  R.),  Notes  on  Van  Inn,  Ceramics.     London,  1868. 


AUTHORITIES   CONSULTED.  9 

Fillon  (B.),  Les  Faiences  d'Oiron.     Paris,  1862. 

Fortnum  (C.  D.  E.),  Descriptive  Catalogue  of  the  Majolica,  etc.,  in  the  South  Kensington  Museum. 
London,  1873.  [This  South  Kensington  catalogue  is  enriched  with  colored  plates  and  wood- 
cuts, and  still  more  enriched  with  Mr.  Fortnum's  learned  and  clear  notices  of  the  Saracen  and 
European  potteries.  It  is  the  best  single  book  for  the  collector  in  studying  the  origin  and  his- 
tory of  the  Italian  department  of  the  art.] 

Graesse  (J.  G.  T.),  Guide,  etc.,  on  Collection  Complete  des  Marques  ale  Fabriques  ale.  Porcelaines  et  de 
Potei-ies,  etc.  Dresden,  1873.  [A  convenient  hand-book  of  marks,  by  Dr.  Graesse,.  the  accom- 
plished director  of  the  Japanese  Mnseum,  and  other  collections,  in  Dresden.] 

Haslem  (J.),  The  Old  Derby  China  Factory,  etc.  London,  1876.  [Devated  chiefly  to  personal  recol- 
lections of  workmen;  contains  colored  plates  of  Derby  patterns,  and  describes  some  products, 
omitting  vases.     Valuable  for  reference  to  colored  plate  of  marks.] 

Hooper  (W.  H.)  and  Phillips  (W.  G),  Manual  of  Marks  on  Pottery  and  Porcelain.  London,  1876. 
[An  excellent  and  convenient  little  hand-book  for  the  use  of  collectors,  to  which  we  are  in- 
debted especially  for  Chinese  and  Japanese  marks,  not  before  given  in  other  works.] 

Julien  (Stanislas),  Histoire  et  Fabrication  de  la  Porcelaine  CMnoise,  etc.,  augmente  d'un  Mhnoire 
sur  la  Porcelaine  de  Japon,par  J.  Hoffman.     Paris,  1856.     [See  text,  p.  233.] 

Jacquemart  (A.),  Histoire  de  la  Ceramique.  Paris,  1875.  [The  collector  will  find  in  this  work 
more  information  on  the  general  and  specific  history  of  the  art  than  in  any  other  one  volume. 
It  has  been  translated  and  republished  in  England ;  but  the  original  edition  is  the  better,  on 
many  accounts.     We  are  indebted  to  it  for  much  historical  matter.] 

Jewitt  (L.),  Life  of  Josiah  Wedgwood.     London,  1865. 

Mareschal  (A.  A.),  LconograpMe  de  la  Faience.     Paris,  1875. 

Mareschal  (A.  A.),  La  Faience  Populaire  au  XVIIIme.  Steele.     Beauvais,  1872. 

Mareschal  (A.  A.),  Les  Faiences  Aneiennes  et  Modemes,  etc.     Paris,  1873. 

Mareschal  (A.  A.),  Assiettes  d  Emblemes  Patriotiques.     Beauvais,  1869. 

[The  works  of  M.  Mareschal  are  useful  for  reference,  containing  a  large  number  of  colored 
plates  of  ordinary  wares  of  factories  such  as  collectors  are  most  likely  to  meet  with.] 

Marryat  (J.),  History  of  Pottery  and  Porcelain.  London,  1869.  [The  best  English  work  on  the 
general  subject,  to  which  we  are  indebted  for  much  historical  and  descriptive  matter.] 

Mayer  (J.),  On  the  Art  of  Pottery,  with  a  History  of  its  Progress  in  Liverpool.  Liverpool,  1873. 
[Local  history  of  Liverpool  potteries.] 

Meteyaed  (Eliza),  Life  of  Josiah  Wedgwood.     London,  1865. 

Meteyard  (Eliza),  The  Wedgwood  Hand-book.  London,  1875.  [Indispensable  to  collectors  of 
Wedgwood  wares  ;  giving  accurate  descriptions,  numerous  private  marks  of  workmen,  and 
quite  full  catalogues.] 

Meteyard  (Eliza),  Memorials  of  Wedgwood.  London,  1874.  [Next  to  the  possession  of  the  origi- 
nals, the  collector  will  enjoy  the  many  exquisite  illustrations  in  this  elegant  volume.] 

Owen  (H.),  Two  Centuries  of  Ceramic  Art  in  Bristol.  London,  1873.  [Local  history  of  Bristol 
porcelain  and  pottery.] 

Passeri  (G.),  Histoire  de  J'liu/in-'.s  sur  Maioliques  <i  Pesaro  <t  les  Environs.     I'aris,  1853. 

Piccolpassi.  Tre  Libri  deW  Arte  del  Vasaio.  [MS.  in  British  Museum,  cited  by  various  writers  ; 
and  the  French  translation,  published  in  Paris,  I860.] 

Pottier  (A.),  Histoire  de  la  Faience  de  Rouen.     Rouen,  1869.     [Numerous  colored  plates.] 


In  AV TSOBl TIES   ( V2TS I  L TED. 

Palliskr  (Mrs.  Bury),  7%  China  Collector's  Pocket  Companion.  London,  1875.  [An  excellent  and 
convenient  pocket  band-book,  which  the  collector  should  have  Cor  constant  reference.  The 
marks  and  monograms  here  gathered  are  the  basis  on  which  the  Table  in  this  volume  is 
founded,  so  far  as  they  relate  to  European  fabrics.] 

Robinson  (J.  C),  Catalogue  of  the  Soulayes  Collection.     London,  December,  1856. 

Robinson  (J.  ('.),  Catalogue  of  the  Loan  Exhibition,  etc.     London,  1862. 

Shaw  (S. ),  Chemistry  of  Porcelain, etc.    London,  1837. 

Smith  (JR.  Murdoch),  Persian  Art.     London,  1876. 

Taimtkikr  (A.),  Recherches  sur  lea  Anciennes  Manufactures  de  Porcelaine  et  de  la  Faience  (Alsaa  <t 
Lorraine).     Strasbourg,  1868. 

Treadwell  (J.  II.),  A  Manual  <;/'  Pottery  and  Porcelain  for  American  Collectors.  New  York,  1872. 
[The  first  American  work  on  the  subject.  A  compact  sketch  of  the  history.  We  are  indebted 
to  Mr.  Treadwell  for  several  illustrations  in  this  volume.] 

Wedgwood  (Josiah),  Account  of  the  £arberi?ii  now  Portland  vase  with  the  various  explication  of  its 
bag  reliefs  that  have  bun  i/ieiit  hi/  different  authors.  No  place  or  date.  [Privately  printed  by 
Mr.  Wedgwood  while  preparing  the  moulds  for  his  reproduction.  The  preface  requests  infor- 
mation to  be  added,  and  in  my  copy,  in  Mr.  Wedgwood's  handwriting,  this  request  is  explained, 
"  that  the  account  which  he  purposes  to  deliver  with  his  copies  of  the  vase  may  be  as  com- 
plete as  possible."] 

Wedgwood  (Josiah),  latidnyue  of  Cameos,  Intaglios,  Medals,  Bas-reliefs,  etc.,  by  Josiah  Wedgwood, 
said  nt  his  Rooms,  in  (leak  Street,  Soho,  London,  and  at  his  Manufactory  in  Staffordshire. 
Sixth  Edition,  with  Additions.  Etruria,  1787.  [A  reprint  of  this  catalogue  has  been  issued  in 
London,  1877.] 

Wai.i.is  (A.)  and  Bemrose  (W.),  The  Pottery  and  Porcelain  of  Derbyshire,  etc.     London,  1870. 

WlNCKELMANN  (J.  J.),  Werke.     Dresden,  1808-20. 

Numerous  other  works  which  have  been  consulted  are  mentioned  in  the  text.  As  this 
volume  goes  to  press,  I  have  received  advance  sheets  of  "  Cyprus ;  its  Ancient  Cities,  Tombs, 
and  Temples,"  by  General  L.  P.  Di  Cesnola  (London  and  New  York,  1877),  a  book  giving  an 
account  of  his  remarkable  explorations,  and  of  the  highest  importance  to  the  student  of 
Phenician  and  early  Greek  ceramic  and  all  other  art. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

INTRODUCTION 17 

Technology 24 

PART  I.-ANCIENT  POTTERY. 

Section    I. — Egypt 31 

"        II. — Assyria  and  Babylonia 45 

"       III.— Piienicia 54 

"       IV.— Holy  Land 68 

"        V.— Greece 68 

"       VI. — Etruria 90 

"     VII.— Rome 92 

PART  II.-MODERN  POTTERY. 

Section     I. — Saracen 97 

"        II. — Italy 140 

"       III.— Spain 180 

"       IV. — Portugal 181 

"         V.— France 182 

VI. — Germany 211 

"      VII.— Switzerland 220 

"    VIII.— Belgium 221 

"       IX.— Holland 222 

"         X.— Sweden 225 

"       XL — Denmark 225 

"      XII.— Russia 226 

"    XIII. — German  Gres  Cerame 226 

PART  III.-PORCELAIN. 

Section     I. — China 231 

"        II.— Corea 255 

"       III.— Japan 256 


L2  CONTENTS. 


PART  III.-PORCELAIN-Continued. 

Section  IV.— India 260 

"  V.      Italy '. 261 

"      VI.— Spain  and  Portugai 271 

"     VII.— France 272 

'•    VIII.  -Germany,  Austria,  and  Hungary 286 

"      EK.— Switzerland 300 

"        X.— Holland 300 

"      XI. — Belgium 301 

"      XII.— Sweden 301 

"    XIII.— Denmark 302 

"    XIV.     Russia  and  Poland....: 302 

PART  IV. -POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND 304 

PART  V.-P0TTERY  AND  PORCELAIN  OF  AMERICA. 

Section    I. — Ancient  American  Pottery 388 

"        II.— Pottery  and  Porcelain  in  the  United  States 399 

"      III. — Collectors  and  Collecting  in  America 406 

PART  VI.-MARKS  ON  POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN 433 

INDEX 517 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 

Homo  Decoration Frontispiece 

1.  Egyptian  Scarabaeus,  the  back 82 

2.  "  "           side  view -32 

3.  "  "  engraved  bottom . .  32 

4.  "  "  with  cartouche     .  .  32 

5.  "  "  "  ....  32 

6.  Blue-enamelled  Cup 34 

7.  Anubis.     Enamelled  Steatite 35 

8.  Pottery  Flasks 36 

9.  Fragment  of  Enamelled  Vase 36 

10.  Wine-press  with  Amphora  (Wilkinson)..  38 

1 1.  Small  Pottery  Bottle 38 

12.  Blue-enamelled  Vase 39 

13.  An  Egyptian  Pottery 40 

14.  Graco-Egyptian  Mortuary  Vase 41 

15.  Egyptian  Plants  (  Wilkinson) 44 

16.  Babylonian  Brick  (Layard) 48 

17    Earthen  Jars  from  Babylonia  (Layard)..  49 

18.  Inscribed  Pottery  Tablet  (Layard) 49 

19.  "  "  "       (Layard) 50 

20.  One  of  the  Deluge  Tablets 51 

21.  Terra-cotta  Tablet  from  Babylon  (Lay'rd)  52 

22.  Glazed  Coffins  from  Warka  (Loftus) 52 

23    Figures  of  Assyrian  Venus  (Layard).  .. .   53 

24.  Inscribed  Bowl  from  Babylon  (Layard). .   53 

25.  "  "         "  "        (Layard)..    54 

26.  Phenician  Vase — Human  Head 55 

27.  Phenician  Vases,  various 56 

28.  Phenician  Vase — Bull's-head  Spout 57 

29.  Venus  with  Attendants 58 

30.  Bottle  in  Bird  Form 59 

31.  Egypto-Phenician  Wine-jug 60 

32.  "  "        60 

33.  Symbols  on  Phenician  Pottery 61 

34.  Phenician  Bottle 61 

35.  Grfeco-Phenician  Vase 62 

36.  Egypto-Phenician  Vase 63 


PAGE 

37.  Gra?co-Phenician  Vase 64 

38.  Phenician  Vases 65 

39.  Colossal  Phenician  Head 66 

40.  Pottery  Hand 67 

41.  Greek  Amphora :   Theseus  and  the  Min- 

otaur   69 

42.  Early  Greek  Kylix 70 

43.  Eumenides.     (From  a  Greek  vase.) 71 

44.  Early  Greek  Kylix 72 

45.  Greek  Vase,  fine  style 73 

46.  Greek  Vase,  "  Doric  "  style 74 

47.  Greek  Amphora  :  Medea 75 

48.  Dionysus.     (From  a  Greek  vase.) 77 

49.  The  Last  Night  of  Troy  (Birch) 79 

50.  Calypso.     (From  a  Greek  vase.) 80 

51.  Panathenaic  Amphora  (Jacquemarf) 81 

52.  Bellerophon  and  the  Chinirera 82 

53.  Forms  of  Greek  Vases 83 

54.  Diogenes  in  his  Tub,  or  Pithos  (Marryat)  84 

55.  Amphora  with  Stamped  Handle 85 

56.  The  Rhyton, 86 

57.  Bottle  in  Dove  Form 86 

58.  Bottle — a  Sleeping  Slave 87 

59.  Latona.     (From  a  Greek  vase.) 88 

60.  Greek  Kylix:  red  ware 89 

61.  The   Pyrrhic    Dance.      (From    a    Greek 

vase.) 89 

62.  Symposium.     (From  a  Greek  vase.) 89 

63.  Charon   Hermes  and  a  Soul.      (From  a 

Roman  lamp.) 92 

64.  Hercules  and  the  Nemaean  Lion.     (From 

a  Roman  lamp.) 92 

65.  Roman  Pottery.     A  Grotesque .  92 

66.  Roman  Pottery.     A  Dwarf .  «.).'; 

67.  Bowl.     Samian  ware 93 

68.  Roman  Moulds  for  Pottery 93 

69.  Bowl :  Samian  ware 94 


14 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


70.  Triton.     (From  a  Roman  lamp.) 94 

71.  Cybele.     (From  a  Roman  lamp.) 95 

72.  Late  Roman  Vase.     (Castor,  England.)  96 
7:;.          "            "            (Upchurch,  Eng.).  Do 

7  1.  Romano-British  Vases 96 

7:..  Wall  Tile-  from  (Vin. L01 

7f,.  Wall  Tile  from  Jerusalem 102 

77.  Wall  Tile,  Lattice  Pattern,from  Cairo.  In:; 

78.  Wall  Tiles  from  Damascus  and  Cairo.  104 
7'.'.  Wall  Tile  from  Damascus 105 

80.  Wall  Tile,  while  flowers  on  dark-blue..  106 

81.  Wall  Tile— Persian  Lion 106 

82.  Wall  Tile  to,'  :1  corner 107 

83.  Hall'  Tile  Iron,  Jerusalem 108 

84.  Persian  Porcelain  Water-pot  (Jacque- 

mart) 117 

85.  .Mark  on  Persian  Porcelain 119 

86.  "               "               "         119 

87.  "               "               "         120 

88.  "               "               "         120 

89.  "              u              "         120 

90.  "                "                "          120 

91.  Decoration  on  Dishes 124 

92.  Decoration  on  Bowls 124 

9:i.            "                   "       124 

94.  •'                   "      125 

95.  Damascus-ware  Jug 125 

9.;.  Rhodian  Dish 126 

97.  Pottery  Egg 127 

98.  Rhodian  Dish 128 

99.  Mohgrabbin  Plate 131 

L00.  Ogogo  Pottery 132 

Ml.  I'.jiji  Pottery 132 

102.  Water-jug  from  Chanak-kalesi 133 

103.  Alhambra  Vase 134 

104.  Bispano-Moresque  Dish  (Marryat).  .  .  .  L35 

105.  Hispano-Moresque  Vase 1S6 

106.  Siculo-Arabian  Vase 137 

H17.  Portrait  of  Luca  della  Robbia 141 

108.  Mezza-majolica  Dish 148 

L09.  Majolica  Vase 150 

110.  Madonna:  Delia  Robbia  ware 151 

111.  Majolica  Painter  at  Work 152 

112.  UrbinoDish:   Charles  V 1;,:, 

1 L3.   Pilgrim  Bottle.     (Urbino.) 156 

1 1  1    Urbino  Dish :  The  Judgmenl  of  Paris.  L61 

115.  Dish:   Flight  into  Egypt.     (Castel-Du- 

rante.) 164 

116.  Dish:  Chiar-oscuro.   (Casjtel-Durante.).  1 OG 


Dish:  Music.     (Castel-Durante.) 168 

Gubbio  Lustred  Dish 170 

Boccala  of  Gubbio 171 

Gubbio  Dish  :  Hercules  and  Antaeus. .  173 

Faen/.a  Dish  (Marryat) 176 

Vase.     Grotesques.    (Rome.) 178 

Pitcher.    Grotesques.     (Rome.) 179 

Faience  of  Oiron — Pitcher  (Marryat).  183 

"               "     — Biberon  (Marryat).  184 

"               "     — Pitcher  (Marryat).  185 

Vase,  by  Palissy  (Marryat) 192 

PaUssy  Reptile  Dish 193 

Moustiers  Dish 200 

Xevers  Faience  Patriotique 201 

"                      "           202 

Rouen  Dish 205 

Faience  a  la  Corne.     (Rouen.) 206 

Nuremberg  Stove  Tile 211 

German  Stove  Tile  (Marryat) 212 

Delft  Plate 223 

German  Stone-ware  Jug  (Marryat). . .  .  227 

Gres  Cannette 228 

Apostle  Mug 229 

Chinese  Vase.     Lacquer  and  flowers.  .  232 

Chinese  Vase 234 

Chinese  Bottle  found  in  Egpyt 236 

"     237 

"            "             "     237 

"      238 

"    atArban 238 

Blue  Vase  with  white  flowers 239 

Sea-green  Crackle  Vase 240 

Vase  with  blue-dragon  decoration 241 

Cray  Crackle  Vase 244 

Cnp  of  Sacrifice 245 

Chinese  Vase.     Blue  and  white 24ti 

Six  Mark 253 

Mark  in  Seal  Character 253 

Symbolic  Marks 254 

Corean  Water-pot 255 

Japanese  Plate 256 

Japanese  "Mandarin"  Vase 258 

Japanese  Vase.    Relief  decorations . .  259 

Indian  Howl 260 

Bowl :  Medicean  porcelain 264 

Judas  the  Essene 26(1 

Fac-simile  of  Engraving 267 

Cup  and  Saucer.    (Capo-di-Monte.). . . .  268 

Venice  Cup  and  Saucer 270 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


15 


166. 
167. 
168. 
169. 
170. 
171. 
172. 
173. 

174. 

175. 

176. 

177. 

178. 

179. 

180. 

181. 

182. 

183. 

184. 

185. 

186. 

187. 

188. 

189. 

190. 

191. 

192. 

193. 

194. 

195. 

196. 

197. 

198. 

199. 

200. 

201. 

202. 

203. 

204. 

205. 

206. 

207. 

208. 

209. 

210. 

211. 

212. 

213. 


Buen  Retiro  Jardiniere    

Sevres  Vase 

Sevres  Cup  and  Saucer    

Sevres  Vase 

Catharine  II.  Initial 

Sevres  Plate , 

Bottcher-ware  Teapot 

Dresden  Cup  and  Saucer:  King's  pe- 
riod   

Dresden  White  Teapot 

Dresden  Teapot 

Dresden  Chocolate-pot 

Dresden  Tray 

Dresden  Teapot  

Dresden  Chocolate-pot 

Dresden  Saucer,  with  Cupids 

Dresden  Milk-pot.    Diamond  engraving 

Dresden  Vase 

Vienna  Plate 

Vienna  Chocolate-pot 

Berlin  Cup  and  Saucer 

Berlin  Teapot 

Berlin  Cup:  Frederick  the  Great 

Wallendorf  Cup  and  Saucer,  with  Rebus 

Celtic  Urns 

Celtic  Incense-cup 

Romano-British  Cup :  red  ware 

Romano-British  Urn.     (Castor,  Eng.)  . 
Romano-British  Vase.     (Castor,  Eng.). 

Saxon  Jug 

Saxon  Urn 

Norman  Jar 

Norman  Jug 

Norman  Yellow-glazed  Pitcher 

Norman  Green-glazed  Pitcher 

Mediaeval  English  Bottle 

Tile  from  Cruden's  Chapel 

Tile  from  Chertsey  Abbey 

Tile  from  Malvern  Abbey 

Tile  from  Westminster  Chapter-house. 

Staffordshire  Tyg 

Staffordshire  Posset-pot 

Tablet  on  a  House 

Mortuary  Tablet 


Early  Staffordshire  Dish 

White  Salt-glazed  or  Crouch-ware  Mug. 
White  Salt-glazed  or  Crouch-ware  Dish 


271 
276 

277 
278 
278 
279 
286 

287 
288 
289 
289 
290 
290 
291 
292 
292 
293 
293 
294 
296 
296 
297 
299 
304 
305 
305 
306 
306 
307 
307 
308 
308 
309 
309 
310 
311 
312 
313 
'313 
314 
314 
316 
316 
317 
317 
318 
318 
319 


PAGE 

214.  Elers  Ware 319 

215.  Elers-ware  Teapot 320 

216.  Josiah  Wedgwood's  First  Teapot 321 

217.  Mr.  Thomas  Bentley.     Medallion 322 

218.  Mrs.  Wedgwood.     Medallion 324 

219.  Cream-color  Basket-dish    325 

220.  Cream-color  Ware 326 

221.  "  "     326 

222.  Cream-color  Cup  and  Saucer 326 

223.  Wedgwood  Antique  Vase.     White  on 

black 327 

224.  Cameo 328 

225.  Ear-ring  Drop 328 

226.  Jasper  Vase 328 

227.  Rev.  John  Wesley.     Medallion 329 

228.  Ear-ring  Drop 330 

229.  Cameo 331 

230.  Jasper-ware  Vase 332 

231.  Antique  Vase  :  black  basaltes    332 

232.  Form  of  the  Portland  Vase 334 

233.  Group  from  the  Portland  Vase ...    .     334 

234.  Dr.  Erasmus  Darwin.     Medallion 335 

235.  Dr.  Priestley.     Medallion 338 

236.  Cameo 338 

237.  Cameo 339 

238.  Inkstand.     (Fulham.) 340 

239.  Brown  Stone- ware  Jug.     (Fulham.)...   341 

240.  Puzzle-jug.     (Nottingham.) 342 

241.  Old  Staffordshire  Dish  :  Adam  and  Eve.  343 

242.  Bust  of  Shakspeare 343 

243.  Steamboat  "  Chief-Justice  Marshall ".  344 

244.  Saucer,  by  Aaron  Wood 347 

245.  Queen's-ware  Bread-dish 348 

246.  Agate-ware  Knife-handle 350 

247.  "  "  350 

248.  Covered  Cup,  by  Whieldon 351 

249.  Queen's-ware 352 

250.  Interior  of  Liverpool  Bowl 353 

251.  Sand-box,  by  Chaffers 354 

252.  Head  of  Washington 357 

253.  Washington  Pitcher 358 

254.  "  "       359 

255.  "  "       361 

256.  John  Hancock  Mug 362 

257.  Willow-pattern  Plate 363 

258.  Worcester  Vase  (Marryat) 364 

259.  Worcester  Teapot 365 

260.  King  of  Prussia  Jug 366 

261.  Worcester  Jug 367 


i»; 


ILLVSTRATIONS. 


p  v.» 

262.  Worcester  Teapol  and  Stand 868 

268.  Chelsea-Derby  Cup  and  Saucer 869 

264.  Crown-Derbj  Cup  and  Saucer 370 

265.  Crown-Derby  Vase :;T1 

Nantgarron  Plate 372 

267.  How  Teapot 372 

268  Bon  Candlestick  (Marryat) 373 

269.  Bow  Cream-jug,  with  the  Bee  (Marryat)  374 

•J7".  Hawthorn  Pattern  on  Bow 374 

•ill.  Chelsea  Figurine :  Minerva 375 

272.  Chelsea  Figurine :  Girl 376 

278.  Plymouth  Coffee-pol  (Marryat) 376 

274.  Plymouth  Sauce-boat ;!T7 

276.  Bristol  Vase 378 

276.  Bristol  Cup  and  Saucer 379 

277.  BriBtol  Porcelain 380 

278.  Lowestoft  Saucer 381 

•J7'.'.  Indian  Vase.     (From  Ohio.) 388 

280.  "  "  389 


281.  Bottle :   Peruvian  pottery 389 

282.  "        Animal's  Head 389 

283.  The  Caballito 390 

284.  Bottle— Man's  Head 390 

285.  Jar— Man's  Head 391 

286.  Painting  from  a  Peruvian  Vase 391 

287.  Vase  from  Santa 392 

288.  Peruvian  Coast  Pottery 392 

289.  Pottery  from  Cuzco 392 

290.  Ewer  from  Central  America 393 

291.  Peruvian  Bottle:   Coast  pottery 394 

292.  Peruvian  Coast  Pottery 394 

293.  Peruvian  Vases 395 

294.  Peruvian  Coast  Pottery 395 

295.  Nicaragua  Pottery 396 

296.  Vase  from  Tehuantepec 39(5 

297.  Stamped  Inscription 397 

298.  "  "  397 

299.  Wire  Frame  to  hang  Plates 415 


POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN. 


INTRODUCTORY. 


Eveky  man  and  woman  should  have  a  hobby.  To  the  working-man, 
in  whatever  walk  of  life,  it  will  prove  a  relief  from  labor,  a  change  fo-r 
the  thinking  faculties,  a  refreshment  of  mind,  and  snch  oblivion  of  the 
oppressions  of  daily  toil  as  cannot  be  found  otherwise.  It  will  enable  him 
to  retire  at  will  into  a  sphere  of  life  and  mental  occupation  wholly  sep- 
arated from  business  or  professional  cares,  and  to  shut  out  from  him  all 
their  anxieties.  To  one  who  has  "  nothing  to  do,"  a  well-selected  hobby 
affords  the  best  of  employment,  since  it  gives  life  an  object.  No  pleas- 
ure is  more  profitable  than  that  found  in  surrounding  one's  daily  life 
with  works  of  the  Great  Artist  or  of  man,  arranged  and  classified  in 
such  wTay  as  to  please  the  eye,  afford  instruction,  or  form  material  for 
intelligent  study  and  examination.  The  refining  influences  which  attend 
the  formation  of  such  collections  are  ample  reward  for  time,  labor,  and 
money  expended  on  them,  if  there  were  no  other  compensation.  The 
sincere  student  finds  in  the  pursuit  occupation  resulting  in  extended 
study  of  the  history  of  nature  or  of  man,  and  every  fact  which  he  learns 
is  made  clear  to  his  intelligence  and  impressed  on  his  memory  by  illus- 
trative specimens. 

No  department  of  art  history  is  more  attractive  or  more  remunera- 
tive to  those  who  study  it,  or  to  those  who  gather  a  few  specimens  of 
human  effort  in  it,  than  is  that  which  forms  the  subject  of  this  volume. 

Pottery  is  the  oldest,  the  longest,  the  most  widely  diffused  of  human 
arts.  Its  recorded  history  begins  with  the  building  of  Babel;  and  great 
cities  in  all  ages,  notably  all  great  American  cities,  are  vast  structures  of 
pottery.  It  is  its  own  historian.  Ceramic  collections  are  libraries  of 
history,  every  specimen  a  book  of  the  thoughts  of  men,  of  which  the 
earliest  known  were  published  not  long  after  the  Deluge.  Every  peo- 
ple, civilized  and  barbarian,  has  practised  the  art  in  one  or  another  form. 

2 


1>  POTTERY   AND   PORCELAIN. 


The  first  fire  that  was  kindled  on  clay  soil  baked  the  clay,  and  would 
naturally  sueraresl  to  the  builder  of  the  tire  that  he  could  thus  convert  a 

- 

soft  and  easily  moulded  substance  into  a  hard  and  permanent  article  of 
use.  So  ii  ie  not  strange  that  savage  tribes  have  made  pottery.  Acci- 
dent might  color  the  surface  and  from  such  accident  it  was  an  easy  step 
to  the  use  of  various  colored  clays  and  pigments,  ana  thus  to  systematic 
decoration.  The  yielding  (day  would  assume  any  form  that  the  taste  of 
the  moulder  might  suggest,  and  the  decoration  would  also  indicate  the 
taste  of  the  sculptor  or  the  painter,  however  rude  their  ideas  and  un- 
skilled their  ability  in  art.  Whenever  trade  was  established,  and  men 
made  pottery  for  sale  or  barter,  the  forms  and  decorations  would  be  such 
as  were  most  likely  to  be  acceptable  to  the  people  expected  to  purchase. 
Thus  prevalent  styles  would  be  indications  of  public  taste;  and  the  work 
of  the  potter  being  permanent,  the  baked  ware  enduring  for  ages  with- 
out change,  the  ceramic  art  takes  precedence  of  others  as  the  index  of 
human  character  in  various  ages  and  countries. 

A  very  simple  illustration  of  this  may  be  found  in  the  examination 
of  the  potteries  \\>r<\  by  modern  civilized  nations.  The  porcelain  and 
pottery  used  in  Germany  in  the  last  century  and  early  part  of  this  cen- 
turj  are  characteristic.  Those  of  France  are  characteristic.  The  pottery 
of  the  Saracens  is  characteristic.  The  products  of  Italy  are  characteris- 
tic. Each  variety  is  peculiar  in  some  respects;  and,  excepting  the  cases 
in  which  copies  of  one  product  are  made  in  another  country,  each  can  be 
recognized,  and  each  illustrates  peculiarities  of  each  people.  On  the 
other  hand,  if  one  were  to  seek  from  the  pottery  and  porcelain  found 
in  American  houses  at  the  present  day  an  illustration  of  American  tastes, 
he  would  be  puzzled  to  know  what  they  are,  would  find  no  uniformity 
indicated;  no  prevailing  styles  of  form  or  decoration  would  appear,  and 
he  would  conclude  correctly  that  the  Americans  are  cosmopolitan  in 
tastes,  and  depend  on  many  other  nations  for  their  supplies  of  ceramic 
ware.  For,  as  matter  of  fact,  the  people  of  the  United  States  are  Eng- 
lish, German,  French,  Italian,  or  otherwise  foreign  by  birth  or  descent, 
and  have  hitherto  made  little  or  no  ceramic  wares  except  articles  for 
the  most  ordinary  purposes  of  utility,  and  have  established  no  American 
atj  les  of  art. 

The  ceramic  art  is  thus  important  in  ethnological  investigations,  and 
it  is  equally  important,  in  the  same  way,  because  of,  its  connected  his- 
tory, which  serves  as  an  index  of  the  history  of  the  race  of  man. 

We  will  not  pause  to  discuss  theories  of  the  origin  of  the  race.  Art 
Btudy  is  a  Btudy  of  facts;  and  where  theory  is  employed,  it  is,  as  it  always 


INTRODUCTORY.  19 


should  be,  merely  a  tool  to  be  used  in  investigation  and  thrown  away  un- 
less investigation  changes  it  from  theory  to  fact.  A  school-boy's  theory 
is  worth  as  much  as  a  Newton's  until  proved  or  disproved  by  investiga- 
tion. All  study  in  every  department  of  human  art  begins  at  a  period  not 
long  after  the  Mosaic  deluge.  All  art  history,  when  traced  towards  its 
beginning,  is  found  to  commence  at  a  time  less  than  five  thousand  years 
ago.  There  is  no  work  of  human  hands,  no  result  of  human  thought, 
now  known,  whose  date  is  fixed  at  more  than  3000  b.c.  The  earlier  dates 
assigned  by  some  able  men,  in  contradiction  of  equally  able  men,  to  the 
Egyptian  monuments  of  the  ancient  dynasties  are  theoretic.  The  con- 
verging lines  in  the  histories  of  all  human  inventions  and  arts,  in  tombs, 
in  architecture,  in  money,  in  forms  of  religion,  in  language  spoken  or  writ- 
ten, above  all,  in  ceramic  art,  traced  from  their  widest  divergence  towards 
their  place  and  time  of  origin,  point  to  the  western  portion  of  Asia  as  the 
place  where,  and  about  five  thousand  years  ago  as  the  time  when,  the  his- 
tory of  man  as  read  in  his  work  must  begin.  The  study  of  these  arts, 
therefore,  leads  to  the  belief  that  prior  to  that  time  there  w»ere  no  men  on 
the  earth,  or  that  a  catastrophe  of  some  kind  had  swej)t  the  major  part  of 
the  race  and  their  works  from  existence,  and  the  remaining  few  began 
the  history  again  in  the  western  part  of  Asia. 

The  earliest  mention  of  pottery  in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  is  the  ac- 
count of  the  building  at  Babel.  But  the  oldest  known  pottery  is  Egyp- 
tian. Evidence  is  abundant,  and  accumulating,  that  Egypt  was  colonized 
from  Mesopotamia.  It  is  probable  that  the  art  went  thither  with  the 
colonists,  but  no  examples  of  that  early  work  in  the  Euphrates  valley 
are  now  known.  The  line  of  the  later  history  may  be  traced  with  consid- 
erable certainty,  Unglazed  pottery  seems  to  be  the  fabric  of  all  nations, 
and  was  made  in  many  parts  of  the  world  as  an  independent  discovery. 
It  is  through  the  line  of  glazed  and  enamelled  potteries  that  the  gene- 
alogy is  most  interesting. 

That  genealogy,  briefly  stated,  is  this :  Men  made  brick  and  other  un- 
glazed pottery  in  Mesopotamia,  and  on  the  dispersion  carried  the  art  with 
them.  The  Egyptians  discovered  the  art  of  enamelling  and  painting  it  with 
colors.  Nineveh  and  Babylon,  cities  of  a  later  age,  received  this  art  from 
Egypt,  and  applied  it  on  a  magnificent  scale  jto  the  building  of  great  Avails 
of  enamelled  brick.  The  Phenicians  at  an  early  date  learned  to  apply  to 
the  surface  of  pottery  a  thin  varnish-like  lustre,  and  transmitted  this  art 
to  the  Greeks.  The  Greeks,  although  in  rare  instances  using  the  Egyp- 
tian art  of  enamel,  do  not  seem  to  have  liked  it,  and  did  not  practise  it 
generally,  confining  their  ceramic  art  to  unglazed  wares,  or  those  simply 


20  POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN. 


painted  and  covered  with  a  thin  lustrous  varnish,  which  is  probably  a  true 
glaze.  Even  this  art,  handed  down  to  the  Romans,  was  lost  in  Europe, 
and  with  the  decadence  of  the  Empire  the  potter's  art  declined  until,  in  a 
modern  age,  the  Saracens,  by  their  brilliant  productions,  roused  the  Chris- 
tians to  paint  and  glaze,  and  then  taught  them  how  to  enamel  pottery. 

Persia  probably  received  the  art  of  enamelling  pottery  from  As- 
syria, and  transmitted  it  to  China;  China  gave  it  to  Corea  and  Japan. 
Whether  Persia  always  practised  it,  or,  having  lost  it  for  a  time,  received 
it  again  from  the  East,  may  be  doubtful;  but  there  is  good  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  it  remained  in  Central  Asia  until  found  there  by  the  Arabs,  in 
the  Mohammedan  conquest. 

It  is  not  altogether  certain  whether  the  art  thus  found  by  the  Arabs  in 
Persia  was  that  of  enamel,  or  only  the  art  of  painting  and  glazing  pottery, 
and  this  will  not  be  determined  until  fuller  knowledge  is  obtained  of  the 
ceramic  history  of  Central  Asia.  It  is  by  some  supposed  that  stannifer- 
ous enamel  was  a  later  independent  discovery  of  the  Saracen  potters,  and 
it  has  even  been  suggested  that  the  presence  of  tin  in  Spain  led  to  the  dis- 
covery there.  On  the  other  hand,  many  of  those  specimens  of  Saracen 
wares  made  in  Asia  which  are  supposed  to  be  among  the  earliest  are  en- 
amelled. Traces  of  the  art  appear  in  the  Eastern  Mediterranean  and  at 
(  onstantinople  in  the  sixth  century.  From  this  obscure  line,  or  from  the 
Saracens,  it  is  uncertain  which,  it  extended  along  the  well-trodden  roads 
of  communication  in  the  Middle  Ages  to  Germany,  where  it  is  found  in 
the  twelfth  century,  and  was  practised  till  the  fourteenth.  It  seems  to 
have  been  lost  in  Northern  Europe  not  long  before  Italy  received  it  from 
the  Saracens  in  the  fifteenth  century. 

The  Arabs  diffused  the  art  wherever  their  conquests  extended.  It 
spread  over  Western  Asia,  along  the  northern  coasts  of  Africa,  from  isl- 
and to  island  of  the  Mediterranean,  into  Spain,  everywhere  practised  by 
Saracen  potters,  until,  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  an  Italian 
sculptor  learned  it,  and  Italy  adopted  it.  Italian  potters  carried  it  into 
France.  German  potters  who  had  either  revived  their  own  lost  art,  or 
received  it  afresh  from  Italy,  diffused  it  through  Northern  Europe. 
Holland  took  it  from  Germany,  and  sent  her  potters  to  England  to  teach 
it  there. 

Meantime,  about  two  thousand  years  ago,  either  in  Persia  or  in  China, 
was  discovered  the  art  of  making  pottery  translucent,  and  producing 
what  we  now  call  porcelain.  For  sixteen  hundred  years  this  art  was 
known  only  in  Asia.  In  Venice, about  L519,an  old  potter  made  porcelain, 
and  died  without  teaching  a   successor  the  art,      In  1567  porcelain  was 


INTROD  UCTOR  Y.  2 1 


probably  made  at  Ferrara.  In  Florence,  about  1580,  the  Medicean  labora- 
tory made  porcelain,  but  again  the  art  was  lost.  In  England,  about  1G71, 
a  Fulham  potter  claimed  to  have  discovered  the  art ;  but  no  specimens 
of  his  work  are  extant.  At  St.  Cloud,  in  France,  about  1695,  the  art  of 
making  a  translucent  pottery,  such  as  we  now  call  soft -paste  porcelain, 
was  found,  and  France  began  to  make  this  ware.  About  1710,  at  Dresden, 
in  Germany,  the  Asiatic  secret  of  making  true,  or  hard -paste  porcelain 
was  discovered,  and  thereafter  came  the  glory  of  Dresden  in  the  one 
kind,  and  of  Sevres  in  both  kinds,  of  porcelain. 

Thus  the  cups  on  our  tables  are  lineal  descendants  of  the  cups  used 
by  the  ancestors  of  the  builders  of  the  Pyramids.  A  child  is  sometimes 
told  to  hold  a  shell  to  his  ear  and  hear  in  it  the  sound  of  the  sea.  That 
same  deep  sound,  which  one  may  hear  in  any  vase  of  Chelsea  or  Derby, 
Sevres  or  Dresden,  Minton  or  Copeland,  coming  down  through  a  long  suc- 
cession of  generations  of  pottery,  is  the  roar  of  the  Deluge. 

All  along  this  line  of  historic  art  which  we  have  thus  rapidly  traced, 
sculpture  and  painting  contributed  to  the  splendor  of  the  products.  Ev- 
erywhere, and  in  all  ages,  the  results  of  the  art  wTere  enduring  monuments 
of  national  character,  of  the  comparative  civilizations,  the  refinement  or 
barbarism,  the  ignorance  or  learning,  of  the  races  of  men. 

The  forms  and  decoration  of  pottery  afford  a  remarkable  field  for  his- 
toric investigation,  which  abundantly  repays  the  workman.  In  the  Ces- 
nola  collection  of  Cypriote  antiquities  we  have  an  unparalleled  series  of 
examples.  Here  is  a  local  ceramic  art,  illustrated  by  thousands  of  speci- 
mens, covering  a  period  which  extends  from  more  than  fifteen  hundred 
years  before  Christ  to  four  or  five  hundred  after  Christ.  The  birth  and 
childhood  of  Greek  art  are  here  exhibited.  The  lessons  and  influences 
received  from  Egypt  at  and  after  the  date  of  the  conquest  of  Cyprus, 
about  1500  b.  c,  are  as  visible  on  Cypriote  vases  as  if  written  in  Greek 
or  English  letters.  The  rude  form  of  the  early  Phenician  statuettes,  re- 
sembling the  mud  figures  made  by  modern  children,  are  followed  by 
more  graceful  figures,  until  the  culmination  is  reached  in  that  superb 
Greek  art  which  has  never  been  surpassed. 

The  origin  and  growth  of  well  known  designs  in  ornament,  which 
have  proved  popular  in  all  later  times,  and  which  have  been  found  in 
use  among  various  peoples,  are  traced  in  the  ceramic  history.  The  first 
Phenician  decorations,  in  scratches,  black  lines,  circles,  checks,  and  dia- 
monds, showr  early  and  simple  forms.  We  find  lines  crossing  lines,  cir- 
cles overlapping  circles,  and  in  these  first  forms  we  find  the  origin  of  the 
patterns  called  the  Meander  (which  is  the  immediate  result  of  the  lines 


22  POTTER!   AND   PORCELAIN. 

in  a  check  pattern),  and  of  many  of  the  beautiful  curvilinear  drop  and 
leaf  patterns  commonly  called  Etruscan.  It  is  worthy  of  note,  too,  that 
these  universally  popular  patterns  arc  found  on  the  old  pottery  of  nations 
whose  arts  show  no  other  resemblance  to  the  arts  of  Phenicia  and  Greece, 
and  this  doubtless  because  these  ornamental  lines  are  the  natural  result 
of  straight  and  curved  lines  crossing  each  other,  are  simple  patterns  in 
origin,  commending  themselves  to  the  eye  when  it  first  begins  to  seek 
methods  of  varying  decoration.  After  these,  and  retaining  these,  styles 
of  decorative  art  sprang  up,  suited  to  and  characteristic  of  the  various 
families  of  men.  The  Egyptians  stamped  on  the  forms  of  pottery  im- 
perishable illustrations  of  their  wonderful  mythology.  The  Greek  fabrics 
glowed  with  thousands  of  illustrations  of  the  gorgeous  romance  of  Hel- 
lenic story.  The  Chinese  spread  over  their  enamelled  wares  a  wealth 
of  color  surpassing  gems  in  brilliancy,  and  rich  with  the  chaotic  im- 
agery of  Chinese  religion  and  history.  The  Saracens  interwove  on  pot- 
tery the  luxuriant  vines  and  flowers  of  the  East,  and  made  their  mosques 
to  shine  in  the  sunlight  resplendent  with  color.  Assyria,  Phenicia, 
Italy,  Germany,  France,  England — every  country  has  impressed  or  painted 
characteristic  thought  in  or  on  the  plastic  clay,  and  burned  it  for  a  per- 
manent record,  to  be  studied  and  interpreted  by  generations  of  men. 

I  have  thus  far  spoken  of  the  importance  of  ceramic  art  as  an  aid 
i"  ethnological  research.  It  is  of  equal  importance  as  an  aid  to  the  his- 
torian, because  it  is  frequently  the  bearer  of  historical  facts,  inscribed  on 
it  in  lasting  characters.  The  Babylonian  and  Ninevite  libraries  were 
pottery.  Their  books  were  plaques  of  clay,  on  which  the  letters  were 
impressed,  and  the  plaques,  being  baked,  became  such  enduring  pages  of 
history  that  in  this  nineteenth  century  after  Christ  wre  find  them  as  leg- 
ible as  when  printed,  and  learned  men  are  from  day  to  day  translating 
them  into  our  language.  Innumerable  Egyptian  records  are  found  in 
hieroglyphic  characters  on  the  various  potteries  of  that  people.  Greek 
story  and  history  are  abundantly  illustrated  on  relics  of  Greek  ceramic 
art.  Wherever  the  Roman  legions  went,  they  carried  with  them  the  art 
of  making  pottery,  on  which  they  impressed  historical  facts,  and  from 
which  the  modern  historian  derives  information  otherwise  unattainable. 
In  short,  it  may  be  affirmed  that  next  to  the  art  of  writing,  and  in  con- 
nection with  it,  the  ceramic  art  is  of  more  importance  to  the  student  of 
history  and  of  man  than  any  and  all  the  other  arts. 

The  lover  of  pottery  and  porcelain  needs  no  further  argument  to  jus- 
tify him  in  his  hobby.  Bui  if  it  be  suggested  that  all  this  does  not  go 
to  justify  the  collection  of  modern  works,  he  has  abundant  reason  for  his 


INTRODUCTORY.  23 


pursuit  in  this,  that  no  other  art  so  fully  gratifies  the  love  of  beauty. 
Standards  of  beauty  are  arbitrary.  But  the  ceramic  art  conforms  to  any 
and  every  standard.  The  highest  result  of  civilization  may  be  said  to  ap- 
pear in  the  best  union  of  beauty  with  utility.  Pottery  and  porcelain  are 
thus  the  measure,  as  no  other  art  can  be,  of  comparative  civilization.  If  we 
had  no  other  evidence,  we  should  rank  the  civilization  of  Japan  as  equal 
to  that  of  Europe  from  the  exquisite  splendor,  beauty,  and  delicacy  of  her 
ceramic  productions ;  and  that  such  is  the  proper  rank  to  be  given  it  can- 
not now  be  doubted.  Almost  all  other  beauty  fades  or  decays.  Flowers 
are  beautiful,  but  short-lived,  and  oil  or  water  paintings  of  flowers  on 
paper  or  on  canvas  change  and  fade.  I  look  up  as  I  write  to  a  bou- 
quet of  very  common  but  very  beautiful  flowers,  painted  more  than  a 
century  ago  by  a  great  artist,  on  a  Dresden  vase,  and  they  gleam  with  all 
the  beauty  of  a  summer  day,  and  will,  unless  the  vase  be  broken,  be  as 
beautiful  a  thousand  years  hence,  when  possibly  the  flowers  themselves 
will  be  utterly  unknown  except  from  just  such  paintings.  A  fragment 
of  white  porcelain  is  a  gem  ;  and  if  it  were  not  a  common  ware,  a  white 
porcelain  plate  or  cup  would  be  as  precious  to  a  lover  of  beauty  as  the 
rarest  vase  of  silver,  gold,  or  jade. 

Sculpture  has  found  opportunity  for  its  highest  achievements  in  baked 
clay,  and  it  is  only  because  we  are  accustomed  to  see  them  in  such  com- 
mon use  that  we  are  not  enthusiastic  in  admiration  of  the  beauty  in  form 
which  domestic  pottery  and  porcelain  in  table  services  constantly  present 
to  our  view.  Color,  except  in  gems,  is  nowhere  so  brilliant  and  effective 
as  in  enamel,  and  many  colors  on  enamelled  pottery  and  porcelain  are 
more  brilliant  and  exquisite  than  in  gems.  The  most  cheerful  household 
decorations  are  effected  by  the  use  of  such  colors  on  walls  or  in  cabinets. 
Families  brought  up  with  such  articles  around  them  feel  their  civilizing 
and  refining  influences.  Children  grow  up  among  them  with  knowledge, 
appreciation,  and  love  of  beauty.  The  table  furnished  with  tasteful  ware 
is  bright,  and  ceases  to  be  a  mere  feeding -place.  Its  memories  become 
important  possessions  to  the  members  of  the  family  who  go  away.  The 
dearest  associations  of  old  age  with  childhood  are  connected  with  the 
home  table,  whether  its  furniture  was  the  rarest  porcelain  of  China,  or 
the  simple  and  always  beautiful  blue-and-white  crockery  of  Staffordshire. 
The  lover  of  ceramic  art  and  the  collector  of  its  treasures  of  beauty  can 
afford  to  pity  those  who  are  unable  to  enter  into  the  enjoyment  which  he 
is  happy  in  possessing. 


24  POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN. 

Technology. 

Pottery,  in  the  broadest  meaning  of  the  word,  includes  everything 
made  by  baking  in  fire  or  furnace,  into  the  composition  of  which  clay 
enters.  Porcelain  is  a  variety  of  pottery.  Whatever  restrictions  we 
place  on  the  meaning  of  the  word  pottery,  all  makers  of  wares  consist- 
ing in  whole  or  in  part  of  clay,  finished  by  baking,  are  potters,  and  all 
such  wares  are  works  of  ceramic  art. 

The  nomenclature  of  the  art  is  somewhat  faulty  and  lacking  in  exact- 
ness. It  is  unfortunate  that  we  have  not  a  separate  name  for  each  com- 
position into  which  clay  enters,  so  that  the  name  pottery  might  be  re- 
served as  a  generic  name.  We  should  then  avoid  the  confusion  arising 
from  the  use  of  such  phrases  as  "semi-translucent  pottery,"  "semi-porce- 
lain." and  other  names  applied  to  exceptional  wares.  But,  in  our  day, 
there  is  a  general  distinction  between  pottery  and  porcelain,  which  it  is 
too  late  to  overcome.  We  must  therefore  accept  the  existing  nomen- 
clature, and  endeavor  to  make  it  clear  to  the  beginner  in  the  study  of 
ceramic  art. 

Objects  made  wholly  or  in  part  of  clay  and  baked,  which  are  opaque, 
are  called  Pottery;  those  which  are  translucent  are  Porcelain. 

Pottery  is  of  two  kinds — Soft  and  Hard. 

Soft  Pottery  is  made  of  any  ordinary  clay.  A  common  house-brick 
is  the  simplest  illustration.  It  is  of  various  colors,  depending  on  the  clay 
used  and  on  the  amount  of  firing.  The  more  common  colors  are  brick- 
red,  and  a  creamv  yellow  or  buff.  It  is  easily  scratched  with  an  iron 
point  or  a  tile.     Its  fracture  is  rough  and  granular. 

Hard  Potter?  is  made  by  the  mixture  of  stone  or  sand  with  clay. 
The  simplest  illustration  of  this  is  afire-brick.  It  is  also  of  various  colors, 
is  not  so  easily  scratched  or  filed,  resists  fire.  Its  fracture  varies,  being 
sometimes  rough  and  granular,  sometimes  almost  vitreous. 

Soft  Pottery  is  usually  divided  into  four  classes:  Unglazed,  Glazed, 
Lustrous,  Enamelled. 

Unglazed  Pottery  needs  no  description,  but  the  reader  will  keep  in 
mind  the  successive  steps  in  the  art  of  which  it  is  the  commencement,  as 
illustrated  by  (1)  an  unglazed  pottery  dish,  red,  buff,  or  .black,  according 
to  the  clay  and  the  amount  of  tiring;  (2)  the  same  dish  glazed;  (3)  the 
dish  decorated  with  colors  and  glazed  over  the  color;  (4)  the  disli  covered 
with  opaque  white  enamel  ;  (5)  the  dish  thus  enamelled  and  painted  over 
the  enamel,  with  or  without  a  final  glaze  over  all. 

Glazed  Potter?  is  pottery  covered  with  a  thin  coating  of  glass.     Dif- 


TECHNOLOGY.  25 


ferent  mixtures  are  used  to  form  this  glaze,  the  practical  result  being  the 
same,  that  when  the  pottery  covered  with  the  glazing  mixture  is  baked, 
the  mixture  fuses  and  forms  a  thin  transparent  glass,  covering  the  ware 
and  any  painting  which  has  been  placed  on  it.  Salt  glazing,  used  on  cer- 
tain stone -wares,  is  produced  by  throwing  salt  into  the  furnace  while 
the  pottery  is  hot,  the  gases  forming  a  chemical  union  with  the  sand  in 
the  clay,  and  producing  a  surface  glaze.  Most  of  the  glazes  are  made 
with  the  use  of  lead  and  silex.  Some  glazes  melt  at  a  temperature  equal 
to  that  required  for  baking  the  ware,  others  at  a  much  lower  temperature. 
Some  wares  are  baked  for  the  first  time  with  the  glaze ;  others  are  first 
baked  unglazed,  and  afterward  receive  the  glaze,  which  is  vitrified  by  a 
second  baking. 

Lustrous  Potteky  is  that  class  which  we  find  in  ancient  Phenician 
and  Greek  art,  where  the  object  is  covered  with  a  thin,  varnish-like  glaze 
which  is  so  thin  that  an  iron  point  easily  penetrates  it,  and  it  does  not  al- 
ways prevent  the  permeation  of  water.  No  analysis  has  been  successful,  and 
its  composition  is  unknown.  It  is  probable  that  the  oldest  known  exam- 
ples are  on  the  red  and  black  wares,  with  scratched  decorations,  found  in 
Cyprus,  and  described  hereafter.  There  is  little  reason  to  doubt  that  this 
lustre  is  an  alkaline  glaze.  The  distinction  must  be  borne  in  mind  be- 
tween this  ancient  lustrous  pottery  and  the  modern  fabrics  of  Italy  and 
other  countries,  which,  being  decorated  with  ruby,  copper,  silver,  gold,  or 
platinum  lustre,  so  called,  are  known  as  Lustred  "Wares. 

Enamelled  Potteky  is  covered  with  an  opaque  substance,  called  en- 
amel. This  is  composed  of  stone,  sand,  and  oxides  of  lead  and  tin.  The 
essential  to  an  opaque  white  enamel  is  tin,  which  gives  to  it  the  name 
stomniferous  enamel.  Pottery  covered  with  stanniferous  enamel  may  be 
painted,  and  then  glazed.  Enamel  pastes  are  colored,  and  applied  with 
the  brush  as  paint,  When  vitrified  by  baking,  they  usually  produce  a 
slight  relief  on  the  surface,  differing  in  this  respect  from  objects  which 
are  only  painted  in  colors. 

Hard  Pottery  includes  a  large  number  of  various  wares  made  in 
modern  times,  known  generally  as  stone -wares.  The  more  important 
objects  in  hard  pottery,  formerly,  were  the  stone  jugs,  dishes,  and  drin  Ic- 
ing-vessels classed  as  Gres.  Common  potteries  for  domestic  use  in  stone- 
ware were  abundant  until  the  time  of  Wedgwood.  Salt -glazed  stone- 
wares abounded  in  England.  The  cream-ware,  perfected  by  Wedgwood, 
was  hard  pottery.  Other  English  potters  added  largely  to  the  list  by 
introducing  various  substances  into  the  composition,  and  there  are  now 
many  kinds  of  hard  pottery  known  as  stone-wares  which  are  not  classified. 


26  POTTEBT  AND  PORCELAIN. 

Porcelain  is  translucent  pottery.  It  is  made  by  the  union  of  two 
classes  of  substances,  one  class  aon-vitrifiable,  the  other  verifiable,  by  heat. 
The  result  of  the  baking  is  a  body  which  consists  of  the  minute  opaque 
particles  of  the  substance  which  has  not  melted,  held  together  by  the 
translucent  incited  substance. 

Porcelain  is  of  two  classes — Soft-paste  and  Hard-paste. 

Soft-paste  porcelain  is  divided  by  M.  Brongniart  into  two  classes,  Nat- 
ural suit  paste,  and  Artificial  soft  paste.  This  distinction  is  not  generally 
observed,  and  all  soft-paste  porcelains  are  commonly  classed  together. 
Natural  soft-paste  porcelain  is  made  by  the  use  of  clay  as  the  non-vitrifia- 
ble  substance.  The  English  soft-paste  porcelains  are  mostly  of  this  class; 
and  the  clay  used  in  England  being  kaolinic,  the  porcelains  are  not  uni- 
formly soft,  but  vary  in  hardness  according  to  the  quantity  and  quality  of 
the  clay.  Artificial  soft  paste  is  made  by  various  compositions,  the  vitri- 
fiable substances  varying  in  different  manufactories.  Thus  natural  soft- 
paste  porcelain  was  made  in  England  by  the  use  of  Cornish  clay,  Cornish 
granite,  calcined  bones,  sand,  soda,  borax,  and  oxide  of  tin.  The  artificial 
soft  paste  of  Sevres  was  formerly  made  by  using  nitre,  salt,  alum,  soda, 
gypsum,  sand,  chalk,  and  marl.  Soft -paste  porcelain  is  known  by  the 
French  as, pate  t<  ndn  . 

Hard-paste  porcelain,  or  true  porcelain,  is  made  by  the  union  of  two 
substances,  an  infusible  clay  known  by  its  Chinese  name,  kaolin,  and  a 
stone,  felspar.  Kaolin  being  an  essential  ingredient,  it  cannot  be  made 
where  this  cannot  be  obtained. 

The  difference  between  hard-paste  and  soft-paste  porcelain  is  not  al- 
ways so  perceptible  to  the  eye  as  to  the  touch;  nor  in  varying  pastes,  like 
the  English,  can  it  always  be  determined  by  either  eye  or  hand.  Soft- 
paste  porcelain  is  in  general  soapy  or  oily  to  the  touch,  and  can  be  easily 
scratched  with  an  iron  point.  It  has  usually  a  less  hard  and  cold  glint 
than  hard-paste  porcelain.  The  glaze  generally  covers  the  entire  object, 
including  bottoms  and  bottom  rims,  which  in  hard-paste  articles  are  usu- 
ally unglazed.  When  doubt  exists  as  to  the  quality  of  the  paste,  whether 
soft  or  hard,  it  may  be  determined  by  trying  a  fine  file,  which  will  not 
touch  the  hard  paste,  but  readily  cut  the  soft.  This  determination  is 
often  essentia]  to  the  proper  classifying  of  specimens,  and  the  question 
of  genuineness. 

Kaolin  is  a  white  mineral,  found  in  various  localities,  always  more 
or  less  mingled  with  other  substances,  which  are  as  far  as  possible  re- 
moved from  it  by  washing.  It  is,  according  to  Brongniart,  a  product  of 
the  decomposition  of  felspar.      It  consists  of  silica,  alumina,  and  water 


TECHNOLOGY.  27 


in  chemical  composition.  It  does  not  effervesce  with  acids,  and,  when 
pure  and  freed  from  the  undecomposed  particles  of  felspar  usually  found 
in  it,  it  does  not  fuse  at  the  highest  temperatures  of  porcelain  furnaces. 
It  is  found  in  China,  in  various  parts  of  Europe,  and  is  said  to  exist  in 
abundance  in  America,  in  both  the  Northern  and  Southern  States. 

The  kaolinic  rock,  or  clay — that  is,  the  mass  as  found  which  contains 
kaolin — is  mined,  mixed  with  water  to  form  a  liquid  which  flows  from 
vat  to  vat,  depositing  foreign  substances — sand,  stone,  and  other  minerals 
— and  retaining  the  comparatively  pure  kaolin  for  final  sediment.  This 
is  formed  into  bricks,  and  sent  to  the  porcelain  factories  for  use.  The 
most  thoroughly  washed  kaolin,  however,  is  never  free  from  some  sand 
and  other  substances.  Kaolinic  clay  has  been  used  in  the  manufacture 
of  soft-paste  porcelains  in  various  English  factories ;  and  the  product  of 
the  firing  approximates  more  or  less  to  hard  paste,  rendering  it  sometimes 
difficult  to  determine  the  class. 

Many  authors,  from  the  tenth  century  to  the  present  time,  use  the 
word  porcelain  to  describe  all  classes  of  glazed  and  painted  or  enamelled 
wares ;  and  it  is  therefore,  in  many  instances,  impossible  to  know  whether 
they  speak  of  pottery  or  true  porcelain.  The  French  apply  the  word 
faience  to  all  pottery  and  porcelain ;  while  the  word,  as  adopted  in  Eng- 
lish, excludes  porcelain,  and  is  by  some  writers  confined  to  potteries  dec- 
orated with  colors.  The  word  majolica  is  in  general  use  to  signify  Ital- 
ian enamelled  potteries  of  the  fifteenth,  sixteenth,  seventeenth,  and  eigh- 
teenth centuries.  Mr.  Fortnum,  an  authority  entitled  to  high  respect, 
proposes  to  confine  it  to  what  he  believes  its  original  meaning  in  Italy — 
wares  like  those  of  Maestro  Giorgio,  decorated  with  metallic  lustre. 

The  practical  methods  of  making  pottery  and  porcelain  form  no  part 
of  the  plan  of  this  book.  The  briefest  account  of  some  of  the  simpler 
portions  of  the  work  will  be  all  that  its  limits  allow. 

The  potter's  wheel  is  a  revolving  disk,  or  table,  turned  by  the  foot  of 
the  potter,  by  an  assistant,  or  by  machinery.  In  making  pottery,  the  clay 
is  softened  with  water  to  make  it  plastic.  Water  is  only  a  tool  in  the 
process.  The  clay  is  thoroughly  worked  to  uniform  consistency.  A 
lump,  larger  or  smaller,  according  to  the  size  of  the  vessel  to  be  made, 
is  thrown  violently  down  on  the  centre  of  the  wheel,  which  is  set  in  mo- 
tion ;  and  the  thrower,  with  thumb  and  fingers,  curved  sticks,  knives,  and 
other  simple  tools,  shapes  the  vessel.  Other  forms  are  made  in  moulds. 
Relief  ornaments  for  the  surface  are  either  engraved  in  the  mould,  or 
are  moulded  separately  and  placed  on  the  object,  and  fastened  with  thin 
slip  of  the  paste  by  way  of  glue.     Handles,  spouts,  etc.,  are  made  sepa- 


28  TOTTERY   AS  I)    I'tHiCKLAIX. 


rately  and  thus  fastened.  Large  bottles  with  small  necks  are  turned  in 
two  parts,  the  lower  portioD  first,  the  neck,  widening  out  at  bottom,  next, 
and  this  is  fitted  to  the  bottom,  and  the  whole  turned  and  gently  pressed 
together  with  slip,  all  trace  of  the  line  of  union  disappearing.  Objects 
moulded  in  sections  are  similarly  united.  The  objects  being  formed,  are 
allowed  to  drv,  and  then  baked.  The  forms  of  furnaces  and  the  degree 
of  heat  required  vary  with  different  wares.  Terra-cotta  objects,  so  called, 
are  very  slightly  baked,  while  hard-paste  porcelain  requires  the  highest 
heat.  Good  wares  are  baked  in  seggwrs,  which  are  hard -pottery  cases, 
capable  of  resisting  heat  and  protecting  the  objects  from  smoke  and 
cinder. 

Pottery  thus  first  baked  may  be  painted  with  colors,  then  glazed,  and 
rebaked,  or  may  be  glazed  or  enamelled,  baked  again,  and  then  painted  on 
the  enamel,  and  finally  baked. 

The  color  decorations  of  pottery  are  either  engoles  (colored  earths 
mixed  with  verifiable  substances)  or  verifiable  colors,  which  must  be 
earthy  or  metallic.  Vegetable  colors  disappear  in  the  furnace.  Blues 
are  obtained  from  cobalt;  greens  from  copper  ;  reds  from  iron  and  gold  ; 
rose-pink  from  gold  with  silver  and  tin;  browns  from  iron,  antimony, 
lead,  and  manganese;  yellows  from  antimony,  lead,  and  tin;  black  from 
antimony,  nickel,  iron,  and  platinum;  white  from  tin  and  arsenic.  Vari- 
ous shades  are  obtained  as  in  ordinary  painting.  The  colors  are  usually 
prepared  by  grinding  with  enamel,  so  as  to  form  a  vitrifiable  substance, 
which,  however  thinly  laid  on,  actually  melts  into  a  colored  glass.  If  this 
be  laid  on  thick,  it  forms  a  true  enamel  ;  if  thin,  it  is  still  enamel,  but  is 
commonly  said  to  be  only  color.  In  addition  to  these  colors,  pottery  and 
porcelain  are  decorated  with  metals,  laid  on  in  the  metallic  state,  and  with 
Lustres,  called  metallic  lustres.  The  glaze  is  prepared  in  a  liquid  form, 
of  the  consistency  and  appearance  of  cream.  When  the  object  is  dipped 
into  this,  an  opaque  white  coating  rests  on  the  surface  which  conceals  all 
color  decoration,  but  which  in  the  furnace  melts  into  transparent  glass. 

Porcelain  objects,  like  pottery,  are  formed  on  the  wheel,  or  in  moulds. 
Thin  objects  are  formed  sometimes  by  pouring  into  the  mould  a  liquid 
paste,  thin  as  cream,  which  deposits  its  substance  on  the  inner  surface  of 
the  mould,  the  thickness  depending  on  the  length  of  time  allowed  for  de- 
posit.  The  remaining  liquid  is  poured  out,  and  the  deposit  left  to  dry 
in  form.  In  drying,  the  paste  shrinks  and  easily  leaves  the  mould.  At 
Sevres  thin  vases  are  made  by  subjecting  the  paste  thus  deposited  in  the 
mould  to  atmospheric  pressure  by  the  use  of  the  air-pump.  Thin  vases 
made  without  mk-Ii  pressure  are  apt  to  fall  to  pieces  when  the  mould  is 


TECHNOLOGY.  29 


removed,  and  many  moulds  are  sometimes  required  before  a  perfect  vase 
is  obtained. 

Porcelain  is  often  glazed  at  the  first  firing,  which  bakes  the  paste  and 
melts  the  glaze  at  the  same  time.  Generally  European  porcelain  is  baked 
before  glazing,  and  receives  the  glaze  or  enamel  at  a  second  firing. 

Painting  on  porcelain  is  executed  as  on  pottery,  with  metallic  colors, 
either  under  or  over  the  glaze.  Elaborate  paintings  are  generally  exe- 
cuted on  the  glazed  or  enamelled  surface,  and  a  third  baking  melts  and 
unites  the  paint  with  the  glaze  or  enamel.  Paintings  are  frequently  re- 
touched and  corrected  by  artists,  and  the  object  is  baked  again  and  again. 
Few  ordinarily  good  paintings  are  executed  without  two  bakings,  and 
four,  five,  and  more  are  often  required  for  careful  works. 

The  colors  used  on  porcelain  are  of  two  kinds — those  which  will  bear 
the  highest  temperature  (grand  feu),  and  those  which  will  bear  only  the 
lower  temperature  of  what  is  called  the  mouffie  furnace.  Of  the  first 
are  cobalt-blue,  chrome-green,  and  certain  reds,  browns,  yellows,  violets, 
and  blacks.  These  colors  may  be  baked  with  the  porcelain  at  the  tem- 
perature of  grand  feu,  which  i§  equivalent  to  4717°  Fahrenheit.  More 
delicate  colors  are  baked  at  the  heat  of  the  mouffls  or  enamel  furnace 
(demi-g rand  feu),  which  is  about  1300°  Fahrenheit. 

Gilding  and  metallic  decorations  are  generally  effected  by  placing  the 
metal  on  the  surface  in  an  amalgam,  and,  after  baking,  burnishing. 

Metallic-lustre  decorations  are  effected  by  a  variety  of  processes.  The 
most  celebrated  are  those  of  the  Saracens  and  of  Gubbio,  in  Italy,  which 
will  be  described  hereafter.  Platinum  has  been  extensively  used  for 
covering  pottery  with  a  surface  resembling  silver  or  burnished  lead,  and 
this  is  ordinarily  called  silver  lustre.  Silver  is  rarely  used  for  decora- 
tion, as  it  becomes  black  with  exposure,  and  requires  constant  polishing. 

Printing,  or,  as  it  is  sometimes  called,  transfer  printing,  on  pottery 
and  porcelain  was  first  practiced  about  1756  at  Liverpool,  where  it  was 
probably  invented  a  few  years  previously.  A  copperplate  engraving  is 
printed  on  paper,  the  paper  then  laid  on  the  surface  of  the  article  to  be 
decorated,  and  gently  pressed,  so  as  to  transfer  the  ink  from  the  paper  to 
the  object.  A  variation  of  this  process  was  shortly  afterward  invented, 
known  as  bat-printing.  In  this  oil  was  used  instead  of  ink,  and  prepared 
sheets  of  gelatine,  instead  of  paper.  The  oil  being  transferred  to  the  sur- 
face of  the  object,  the  color  was  dusted  on  in  powder,  adhering  to  the 
lines  of  the  print.  In  modern  times  decoration  by  printing  has  been 
brought  to  a  perfection  equalling  that  of  chromo-lithography.  Many  of 
the  old  printed  wares  were  touched  up  with  colors  by  the  brush.    Modern 


30  POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN. 

improvements  have  been  made  in  some  of  the  old  processes  of  ceramic 
manufacture;  but  as  this  is  not  a  technical  work,  they  cannot  be  described. 
Wedgwood  introduced  the  lathe,  for  turning  and  polishing  work — an  in- 
strument previously  in  use  only  in  China  and  Japan.  Machinery  has  been 
successfully  worked  by  steam  and  other  power  in  modern  potteries,  even 
to  the  extent  of  moulding  the  more  common  classes  of  ware.  But  it  still 
remains  true,  after  thousands  of  years,  that  beautiful  products  of  the  pot- 
ter's  art  are,  like  paintings  on  canvas  and  marble  statues,  the  work  of 
artists;  and  the  highest  achievements  in  the  art  demand  the  greatest 
artistic  powers,  in  moulding  forms  and  managing  colors.  The  decoration 
of  ceramic  wares  is  quite  extensively  practiced,  for  artistic  amusement,  by 
ladies  and  others,  in  Europe  and  in  this  country.  The  paints  prepared 
for  the  purpose  can  be  purchased  in  the  shops,  and  a  little  experience 
will  enable  any  person  who  can  paint  on  paper  or  canvas  to  decorate  pot- 
tery or  porcelain.  There  are  furnaces  in  New  York  at  which  the  wares 
painted  by  amateurs  are  baked,  and  many  of  the  dealers  in  porcelain  fur- 
nish white  enamelled  plaques,  and  unglazed  pottery  vases  and  dishes,  for 
those  who  desire  to  decorate  them. 


PA.ET     I. 

ANCIENT    POTTERY. 


I.-EGYPT. 

About  2700  B.C.,  after  the  dispersion  of  the  family  of  men  in  the 
Euphrates  valley,  a  small  number  found  their  way  along  the  shores  of 
the  sea,  or  pushed  an  adventurous  expedition  through  Arabia  across  the 
deserts,  and  discovered  a  land  of  abundant  fruitfulness,  watered  by  a 
mighty  river,  and  dark  with  the  green  foliage  of  fruit -bearing  palms. 
The  beasts  of  the  field  and  the  birds  of  the  air  had  preceded  them. 
Food  was  abundant.  Nature  was  lavish  in  her  gifts.  The  sunshine  was 
perpetual,  scarcely  a  cloud  obscuring  it  —  only  those  vast  silvery  clouds 
of  millions  of  water-fowl  of  every  species,  then,  as  until  within  our  own 
memory,  floated  and  circled  in  innumerable  quantity  and  variety  through 
the  day,  making  Egypt,  from  sea  to  cataract,  a  "land  shadowing  with 
wings." 

The  small  colony  increased  with  great  rapidity.  Either  the  pecu- 
liarity of  their  life,  or  hereditary  ability,  rapidly  advanced  them  in  the 
arts  above  the  rest  of  the  human  family,  from  whom  they  were  isolated 
by  sea  and  desert.  The  natural  surroundings,  the  birds  above,  the  lux- 
uriant flowers  and  foliage  of  the  vast  morasses  in  the  lower  country, 
the  solemn,  barren  mountains  on  each  side  of  the  narrow  valley,  en- 
tered into  their  conceptions  of  beauty  and  guided  their  imaginations. 
They  retained  the  monotheistic  religion  of  their  ancestors  for  several 
centuries.  In  a  very  short  time,  without  immigration,  their  numbers  in- 
creased, by  ordinary  generation,  to  millions.  The  patriarchal  form  of 
government  became  a  monarchy.  The  monarchy  had  its  vicissitudes, 
was  divided  and  reunited  again  and  again,  but  the  national  civilization 
remained  pre-eminent  for  twenty  centuries.  Their  wise  men  were 
learned.  The  whole  population  were  well'  educated.  Whatever  was 
important  in  history  was  recorded  for  all  the  people  to  read.      Books, 


32 


ANCIENT  POTTERY. 


poetry,  philosophy,  history,  abounded.  When  at  length  they  came  into 
contact  with  other  races,  their  superiority  imposed  on  these  the  charac- 
teristics of  Egyptian  art.  But  the  end  of  this  long  and  unparalleled  his- 
tory came.  From  the  land  of  their  common  origin,  the  Persians  descend- 
ed on  the  Nile  valley,  and  overthrew  the  monuments  of  the  Egyptians. 


Egyptian  Scarabaei :  1.  The  back;  2.  Side  view;  3.  Engraved  bottom;  4.  Scarabasus,  with  cartouche 
of  Amunoph;  5.  Scarabseus,  with  cartouche  of  Thothmes  III. 

The  Greek  civilization,  which  Egypt  had  nurtured  in  its  childhood,  over- 
came her  by  force  of  arms,  without  compensating  her  with  the  gifts  of 
(■reek  art,  and  the  national  existence  perished  under  the  exhausting  sway 
of  avaricious  Rome. 

Centuries  afterward,  on  the  sands  of  the  desert  along  the  Nile  valley, 
the  exquisite  creations  of  a  new  art,  coming  again  from  the  Asiatic  home 
of  the  race,  sprang  up  in  the  sunshine  to  mark  the  burial-places  of  Sara- 
cen rulers  of  Egypt;  but,  too  beautiful  to  endure,  are  now  melancholy 
ruins,  splendid  even  as  they  crumble  to  the  desert  sand. 

The  student  of  ceramic  art  lias  reason  to  be  interested  in  the  history 
of  Egyptian  art.  No  other  in  ancient  times  was  so  powerful  or  had  such 
influence  in  the  department  of  our  present  study.  Each  new  discovery 
which  is  made  leads  towards  the  conviction  that  the  art  of  enamelling 
pottery,  which  has  been,  wherever  known,  the  highest  means  of  uniting 
beauty  with  utility,  first  invented  by  the  Egyptians  nearly  or  quite  four 
thousand  years  ago,  has  never  been  practised  by  any  nation  which  did  not, 
directly  or  indirectly,  learn  it  from  them.  This  example  of  an  art  never 
wholly  lost  out  of  the  world  for  four  thousand  years — an  art  which  con- 
tributes so  much  to  the  civilization  and  refinement  of  the  race — has  dee]") 
interest  to  the  student. 

Without  entering  on  the  discussion  of  disputed  questions  of  Egyptian 
chronology,  the  settlement  of  Egypt  may  be  placed  at  about  2700  B.C., 
and  the  building  of  the  Pyramid  of  Shoofou  or  Cheops  at  about  2350  B.C., 
dates  sustained  by  the  combined  results  of  the  study  of  Egyptian  art. 


EGYPT.  33 

the  records  of  the  monuments,  and  the  agreement  of  the  ablest  English- 
speaking  archaeologists.  It  may  be  noted,  in  passing,  that  the  school 
which  has  heretofore  held  to  dates  of  extreme  antiquity  has  rapidly 
shortened  the  long  term  of  Egyptian  duration  formerly  claimed  ;  and 
Mariette  Bey,  .of  that  school,  the  most  experienced  of  modern  Egyptian 
explorers,  if  not  the  most  trustworthy  reasoner,  places  the  settlement  of 
Egypt  at  5004  b.c,  and  the  dynasty  of  builders  of  the  Great  Pyramids 
at  from  4235  to  3951  b.c. 

While  Egypt  furnishes  abundant  relics  of  art  of  her  ancient  periods, 
growing  fewer  in  number,  and  proving  the  simplicity  of  both  arts  and 
religion  in  the  earlier  times,  there  are  no  monuments  with  dates  which 
make  it  possible  to  locate  them  exactly  in  contemporaneous  history,  or 
with  reference  to  modern  methods  of  computation,  prior  to  the  eigh- 
teenth century  before  Christ.  An  astronomical  occurrence  recorded  in  the 
reign  of  Thothmes  III.  has  enabled  astronomers  to  locate  that  event  at 
1445  b.c.,  but  this  result  is  rendered  somewhat  doubtful  by  contradictions 
in  dates  derived  from  later  astronomical  events  recorded. 

In  commencing  the  history  of  pottery  in  Egypt,  it  is  necessary  to  ex- 
amine a  statement,  widely  credited,  which  places  the  existence  of  pottery 
at  a  remote  period.  The  learned  Bunsen,  in  the  preface  to  the  third  vol- 
ume of  the  English  edition  of  his  great  work,  "  Egypt's  Place  in  History," 
falls  into  an  error  the  more  remarkable  on  account  of  the  learning  and 
accuracy  which  characterize  his  observations  in  general.  This  error  has 
been  fraught  with  evil  consequences  in  the  wide  influence  it  has  exerted 
towards  unsettling  faith  in  the  Mosaic  records.  It  is  worthy  of  distinct 
note  that  other  errors  of  similar  nature  have  been  made  by  many  persons 
who  have  argued  in  favor  of  the  extreme  antiquity  of  the  human  race, 
and  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  the  student  that  he  should  examine 
with  extremest  caution,  and  accept  only  on  the  most  complete  evidence, 
statements  of  the  occasional  discovery  of  works  of  human  art,  or  bones 
of  human  frames,  in  localities  indicating  an  antiquity  far  beyond  that  of 
the  ordinarily  known  and  numerous  relics.  The  study  of  art  is  a  study 
of  facts,  and  its  conclusions  are  not  to  be  rejected  on  the  faith  of  theories 
— especially  of  geologic  theories — so  many  of  which  are  vague  and  unsup- 
ported by  sufficient  evidence. 

The  Chevalier  Bunsen's  argument  is  briefly  this :  At  Mitrahenny,  a 
village  among  the  palm-trees  which  now  cover  the  site  of  ancient  Mem- 
phis in  Egypt,  lies,  half  buried  in  the  soil,  a  colossal  statue  of  Pemeses  II., 
who  reigned  in  Egypt  about  1300  b.c.  The  statue  was  doubtless  erected 
by  him,  and  was  one  of  the  wonders  of  Memphis  in  the  days  of  her  mag- 

3 


34 


ANCIENT  POTTERY. 


6.  Egyptian  Blue-enamelled  Tot- 
tery Cup. 


nificence.      When    the   Persians   conquered  Egypt,  they   overthrew  this 
colossal  monolith,  and   it  has   lain   in   fallen  grandeur  from  that  day  to 

this. 

This  spot  where  the  statue  lies  was  selected  for  borings  in  the  soil. 
Mr.  Homer,  the  English  officer  who  conducted  the  examinations, selected 

the  spot  because  the  presence  of  the  statue  as- 
sured an  undisturbed  earth  for  at  least  three 
thousand  years.  The  accumulation  of  earth  by 
annual  deposit  of  the  Nile  since  its  erection 
had  been  nine  feet  four  inches  in  the  period 
(which  Bunsen  places  at  three  thousand  two 
hundred  and  fourteen  years),  which  gave  an 
accretion  of  three  and  a  half  inches  per  cen- 
tury. This  regular  accretion  and  consequent 
rise  of  the  level  of  Egypt  is  a  well-settled  fact. 
At  the  depth  of  thirty-two  feet  was  found  the 
sand,  underlying  the  Nile  deposits,  and  from  this  depth  was  brought  up 
pottery,  the  work  of  human  hands.  The  argument  on  its  face  seemed 
clear  to  a  child  that  thirteen  thousand  five  hundred  years  had  elapsed 
since  this  pottery  was  left  there  by  living  men ;  and  Bunsen  says,  "  This 
result  is  historical,  not  geological.  The  soil  is  exclusively  historical  soil, 
coeval  with  mankind,  and  underlies  a  monument  the  date  of  which  can 
be  fixed  with  all  desirahle  certainty." 

But,  unfortunately  for  the  learned  German's  conclusion,  he  forgot  that 
if  the  soil  is  "exclusively  historical,  coeval  with  mankind,1''  its  history 
should  be  examined;  and,  overlooking  this,  he  assumes  that  it  is  geologi- 
cal, the  deposit  of  nature  working  through  the  Nile  overflow.  The  soil  is 
historical,  and  its  history  is  quite  plain  to  all  who  have  examined  the 
monolithic  colossi  of  Egypt. 

There  are  remains  of  several  of  these  colossi  not  far  apart  at  Mitra- 
henny.  They  were  each  from  thirty  to  fifty  feet  in  height,  gigantic  mon- 
oliths, Buch  as  no  nation  but  the  Egyptians  have  erected.  They  were  cut 
and  finished  in  quarries,  nearer  or  more  distant,  as  the  quality  of  stone  de- 
termines. They  were  transported  on  mighty  floats  along  the  Nile,  and 
great  canals  were  cut  from  the  Nile  banks,  to  lead  the  floats  to  the  place 
of  final  deposit.  Here  the  Egyptians,  architects  who  built  for  eternity,  be- 
lieving in  all  probability  that  they  would  return  some  day  in  the  flesh  to 
worship  again  in  their  temples  and  find  their  monuments  unharmed  by 
time,  made  great  excavations  through  the  alluvial  and  into  the  underlying 
sand,  and  laid  firm  foundations  for  the  vast  weights  of  stone.     If  different 


EGYPT.  35 

colossi  at  Memphis  were  erected  at  the  same  time,  as  is  probable,  the  ca- 
nals extended  in  various  directions.  Around  each  site  of  the  foundations 
the  excavations  were  practically  small  lakes,  and  coffer-dams  were  essen- 
tial, for  the  Nile  water  percolates  the  alluvial.  The  work  done,  the  statue 
erected,  the  earth  was  rilled  in,  and  Memphis  grew  over  it.  Such  is  the 
historical  soil  through  which  the  borings  were  made ;  and  the  pottery 
found  was  the  broken  pottery  of  the  workmen  who  built  the  foundations 
three  thousand  two  hundred  and  fourteen  years  before  the  fragments 
of  their  water- jars  were  recovered  to  puzzle  modern  men  with  the  no- 
tion that  they  had  lain  more  than  a  century  of  centuries  under  the  Nile 
deposits. 

In  fact,  so  thorough  has  the  canal  system  of  Egypt  been,  for  the  pur- 
poses of  irrigation,  from  the  earliest  dynasties — the  canals  always  descend- 
ing to  the  lowest  Nile  level,  and,  when  abandoned,  filling  up 
With  soil  in  a  few  years — that  excavations  in  Egyptian  al- 
luvial must  furnish  exceedingly  doubtful  results,  wherever 
made. 

The  fact  which  may  be  placed  on  record  in  this  con- 
nection is,  that  pottery,  the  first  and  the  most  enduring 
handiwork  of  mankind,  has  never  been  found  yet  which  can 
be  with  reason  assigned  to  an  origin  as  early  as  3000  b.c. 

Egypt  made  pottery  before  the  building  of  the  Pyra- 
mids.     This  is  evident  from  the  presence  in  older  hiero- 
glyphic writing  of  characters  which  are  pictures  of  earthen  7.  The  God  Aim- 
vessels.     Pictures  of  pottery  vessels  and  small  pieces  of  pot-      bls-    Enamel- 
tery  have  been  found  in  tombs  of  the  Fourth,  Fifth,  and 
Sixth  Dynasties,  contemporary  with  and  after  the  building  of  the  Great 
Pyramid  (about  2350  b.c). 

The  art  of  covering  pottery  with  enamel  was  invented  by  the  Egyp- 
tians at  a  very  early  date.  They  applied  it  to  stone  as  well  as  to  pottery. 
Although  it  is  not  customary  (except  with  the  Chinese)  to  class  in  the 
ceramic  art  enamels  on  any  other  than  earthen  bodies,  the  enamelled  stone 
of  Egypt  is  so  closely  related  to  the  enamelled  pottery  of  Egypt  that  it 
must  be  considered  with  it. 

Steatite  (or  soapstone,  as  some  varieties  are  called)  is  easily  worked, 
and  bears  great  heat  without  cracking.  From  this  material  the  Egyp- 
tians carved  small  pieces  —  vases,  amulets,  images  of  deities,  of  animals 
and  other  objects — and  covered  them  with  green,  blue,  and  occasionally 
red,  yellow,  and  white  enamel,  which  when  baked  became  brilliant  and 
enduring.     Objects  in  enamelled  steatite  are  known  of  very  early  periods. 


36 


ANCIENT  POTTERY. 


8.  Pottery  Flasks  found  at  Thebes. 


One  in  the  Trumbull-Prime  collection,  obtained  at  Thebes — a  small  cylin- 
der— bears  the  cartouche  of  a  king,  Ainunmhe  III.,  of  the  Twelfth  Dy- 
nasty, the  Moeris  of  history,  whose  date  is  placed  at  about  2000  b.c.  The 
enamel  is  pale-green,  almost  white,  except  in  the  engraved  lines,  where, 
being  thicker,  it  shows  more  color. 

In  the  Louvre  collection,  a  cylinder  of  this  material  bears  the  name 
of  Shafra,  a  king  of  the  Fourth  Dynasty,  builder  of  the  second  pyramid; 

and  the  British  Museum  has  three 
which  have  the  names  of  kings  and  of 
a  queen  of  the  Twelfth  Dynasty.  The 
manufacture  of  this  material  was  car- 
ried on  till  the  time  of  the  Ptolemies. 

The  knowledge  and  practice  of  this 
art  at  the  time  of  the  building  of  the 
Pyramids  necessarily  imply  that  the 
Egyptians  could  enamel  pottery  also  at 
that  early  date.  It  is,  in  fact,  impossi- 
ble to  say  that  there  are  any  known 
specimens  of  unglazed  pottery  older 
than  specimens  of  glazed  and  enam- 
elled pottery.  The  histories  of  the  twTo  classes  therefore  begin  together. 
The  Egyptians  made  two  kinds  of  pottery — the  one,  ordinary  soft  pot- 
tery ;  the  other,  a  coarse,  gritty  compound,  loose  in  its  character  and  lack- 
ing cohesion,  sandy,  easily  crumbled,  very  white,  but  always  covered  with 
a  strong  glaze  or  enamel.  This  material  was  chiefly  used  for  small  ob- 
jects, seldom  for  vases.  We  found  at 
Thebes,  in  1856,  a  fragment  of  a  vase 
of  this  ware  (111.  9)  which  must  have 
been  nearly  a  foot  in  height,  which  is 
covered  with  a  thick  white  stannifer- 
ous enamel,  and  decorated  with  figures 
and  hieroglyphs  in  purple.  There  are 
smaller  vases  in  our  collection,  ampho- 
ra-shaped, of  the  same  material,  meas- 
uring from  four  to  six  inches  in  height. 
Cups  and  bowls  were  formed  of  it,  on 
which  figures  were  painted  in  color 
generally  in  black,  and  also  lotus-flowers  and  other  Egyptian  emblematic 
designs.  These  pictures  are  usually  in  outline,  rude  in  execution,  much 
inferior  to  the  work  of  many  Egyptian  artists  who  painted  on  stone  or 


9.  Fragment  of  Egyptian  Vase.     White  en- 
amel ;  figures,  etc.,  purple.     (T.-P.  Coll.) 


EGYPT.  37 

on  papyrus.  The  beauty  of  the  enamel  on  these  objects  has  been  the 
envy  of  potters  in  modern  times.  The  blue  has  never  been  surpassed, 
if,  indeed,  it  has  ever  been  equalled.  Objects  three  thousand  years  old 
retain  the  splendor  of  their  original  color ;  and  this  leads  to  the  inference 
that  the  variety  of  the  shades  of  blue  found  on  them  is  not  the  result 
of  time,  but  the  original  intent  of  the  makers.  These  shades  vary  from 
the  most  intense  bleu-de-roi  and  pure  turquoise  to  pale-blue  tints  ap- 
proaching white.  The  color  is  usually  remarkably  uniform  on  the  ob- 
ject. Several  of  the  rare  colors  of  old  Chinese  porcelain  are  thus  found 
in  ancient  Egyptian  enamels.  The  same  enamel  was  occasionally  applied 
to  soft  pottery. 

Of  unglazed  pottery  Egypt  produced  several  varieties.  The  most 
common  was  the  ordinary  red,  cream  -  colored,  and  yellow,  sometimes  in 
the  later  periods,  under  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  polished  so  as  to  appear 
like  lustrous  pottery.  Another  variety  of  pottery  found  in  Egypt  has  a 
creamy-white  surface  resembling  pipe-clay,  the  paste  very  hard  and  com- 
pact, the  surface  polished,  and  presenting  almost  the  aj)pearance  of  stan- 
niferous enamel  not  perfectly  white.  It  may  be  questioned,  however, 
whether  this  ware  was  made  in  Egypt.  It  is  abundant  in  Cyprus,  and 
it  is  possible  that  objects  found  in  Egypt  were  imported  from  Cyprus. 
After  the  Egyptian  conquest  of  Cyprus,  about  14-40  B.C.,  and  even  at  an 
earlier  time,  the  two  countries  may  have  interchanged  products. 

It  is  not  certain  that  Egypt  ever  burned  brick.  The  absence  of  rain 
in  that  country  made  it  unnecessary.  Sun-dried  brick  were  used  for  the 
construction  of  houses  and  walls,  and  the  fact  that  to  the  present  day 
thousands  of  these  bricks  retain  their  form  and  position,  and  even  the 
stamps  of  the  kings  in  whose  reigns  they  were  made,  shows  how  useless 
burning  would  have  been.  It  is  supposed  by  some  authorities  that  the 
burned  brick  which  are  occasionally  found  are  the  results  of  accidental 
fire.  Others  suppose  that  bricks  were  baked  when  intended  for  use  in 
wet  places.  For  ordinary  purposes,  the  Egyptian  brick  were  mere  masses 
of  sun-dried  Nile  mud,  moulded  usually  of  a  large  size,  sometimes  20 
inches  long,  more  commonly  smaller;  seldom,  however,  less  than  13£ 
inches  by  6|-  by  4£ ;  sometimes  strengthened  by  the  admixture  of  cut 
straw,  used  as  modern  plasterers  use  hair  in  mortar. 

The  forms  of  Egyptian  pottery  were  numerous.  Vases  were  made 
chiefly  for  use,  and  not  for  ornament.  The  amphora,  in  Egypt  as  in  all 
ancient  countries  the  most  common  and  most  useful  vase,  was  made  in  all 
sizes,  from  the  three -inch  oil  or  perfume  holder  to  the  immense  jar  of 
three  or  four  feet  in  height,  for  holding  water,  wine,  oil,  or  grain.     The 


38 


ANCIENT  POTTERY. 


pithos  (so  called  by  the  Greeks),  aD  immense  tub,  cask,  or  vase  of  pottery, 
Mas  made  in  Egypt  as  in  all  the  Oriental  countries.  It  was  the  household 
cellar,  in  which  meats  and  provisions  were  stored.  This  was  sometimes 
six  feet  in  diameter,  always  made  of  coarse  unglazed  pottery. 


10.  Egyptian  Wine-press,  showing  Amphora?.     (From  sculptures  at  Thebes.) 

The  highest  art  was  displayed  in  the  smallest  articles,  whether  of  soft 
pottery,  or  of  the  sandy  paste  before  described.  Images  of  deities  were 
moulded  in  fair  style  or  beautifully  carved  from  steatite,  and  enamelled 
with  the  brilliant  blue  or  green.  The  scarabaeus — the  amulet  which  sig- 
nified, as  some  suppose,  creation  ;  as  others  think,  resurrection — was  made 
in  pottery  as  well  as  steatite,  with  different  symbolic  variations,  but  hav- 
ing the  same  general  form.  Among 
our  specimens  is  one  with  the  head 
of  an  asp;  another  with  the  head 
of  Isis;  another  with  the  head  of 
a  ram,  each  a  work  of  admirable 
art.  One  is  of  soft  pottery,  bear- 
ing the  cartouche  of  Amasis,  570 


11.  Small  Pottery  Bottle. 


B.C.,  and  is  a  specimen  of  unusually  fine  workmanship.  The  wings  are 
open -work,  formed  of  asps  engraved;  the  back  is  the  head  of  Isis;  the 
head  a  ram's  head.  A  scarabaeus  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Charles  Dud- 
ley Warner,  at  Hartford,  is  skilfully  engraved  with  a  life-like  head  of 
a  hippopotamus.  In  our  collection  are  crocodiles,  snakes,  hawks,  apes, 
lions,  fish,  frogs,  cats,  a  ureal  variety  of  animal  forms,  which  were  made 
chiefly  for  ornaments  or  amulets.  Beads  and  bugles  in  various  colors 
and  shapes  were  common.  It  was  customary  to  wrap  the  dead  in  shawls 
composed  of  net-work,  made  of  bugles  and  beads  with  amulets  attached. 


EGYPT.  39 

Bugles  are  often  ornamented  with  spiral  lines  differing  from  the  general 
color — black  on  green,  purple  on  blue,  etc.  Beads  were  made  globular, 
angular,  oblong,  fiat  with  serrated  edges,  and  of  other  shapes  —  blue, 
green,  red,  and  yellow  in  color. 

Enamelled  pottery  was  also  used  for  inlaying  purposes  in  ornamental 
work.  Small  tiles,  two  inches  by  one,  were  used  in  the  Pyramid  of  Sak- 
kara,  as  in  modern  chimney  decoration.  In  the  Abbott  collection  (New 
York  Historical  Society)  and  in  the  Trumbull-Prime  collection  are  nu- 
merous specimens  of  pottery  which  have  been  thus  used.  In  the  latter 
collection  is  an  unusually  large  plaque,  4f  by  4  inches,  the  eye  of  Osiris 
(as  this  design  is  ordinarily  called)  being  indicated  on  it  in  raised  lines, 
the  whole  covered  with  a  rich  dark-green  enamel. 

At  Tel-el- Yahoudeh  are  the  remains  of  a  temple,  built  of  crude  brick, 
whose  walls  were  once  covered  with  tiles  of  a  remarkable  character,  bear- 
ing on  them  the  hieroglyphic  history,  with  illustrations,  of  the  deeds  of 
Kemeses  III.,  about  1200  b.c.  The  legends  on  these  are  sometimes  im- 
pressed in  blue  tiles  and  inlaid  with  colored  glass.  Others  have  yellow 
grounds,  with  impressed  legends  inlaid  in  color.  Yet  others  have  relief 
figures  of  prisoners  captured  by  the  king,  their  dresses  and  hair  inlaid  in 
color. 

The  ancient  Egyptians  used  pottery  for  burial  purposes,  to  contain 
those  interior  parts  of  the  body  which  were  removed  before  embalming. 
Four  vases,  which  were  sometimes  deposited  with  the  mummied  body, 
contained  the  stomach,  the  heart  and  lungs,  the  liver,  and  the  smaller 
intestines.  These  were  generally  made  of  stone,  but 
sometimes  of  pottery.  Examples  are  in  the  Abbott 
collection  in  New  York.  Besides  these,  large  numbers 
of  smaller  objects  in  enamelled  pottery  were  deposited 
with  the  dead.  The  most  common  were  those  now 
called  Osirian  figures,  usually  representing  mummies. 
These  are  of  various  sizes.  Many  so  closely  resemble 
each  other  in  work,  and  in  the  hieroglyphic  legends 
painted  or  impressed  on  them,  that  it  seems  probable  12.  Egyptian  Bhue-enam- 
they  were  objects  kept  in  stock  by  the  potters  for  elledVase. 

sale  to  purchasers  for  funeral  purposes.  They  are  found  both  unglazed 
and  enamelled,  in  red  pottery  and  in  the  hard,  gritty  pottery  before  de- 
scribed. Those  which  represent  the  person  with  a  long  robe,  as  in  life, 
are  more  rare,  and  are  believed  to  be  the  more  ancient  It  was  also  com- 
mon to  build  into  the  walls  on  the  interior  of  tombs  cones  of  pottery,  six 
to  ten  inches  in  length,  the  bases  standing  out,  on  which  were  engraved  or 


40 


ANCIENT  POTTERY. 


impressed,  before  baking,  legends  relating  to  the  dead  occupants  of  the 
tomb.  These  cones  have  been  found  in  great  numbers,  and  much  im- 
portant information  has  been  derived  from  the  inscriptions  on  them, 
which  usually  contain  the  name  of  the  deceased,  his  titles,  the  offices 
which  he  held,  and  expressions  appropriate  to  funereal  purposes.  These 
were  formerly  supposed  to  be  stamps  for  seals. 


#;•#.     ^A~^r* 


13.  Ancient  Egyptian  Pottery.     (From  a  tomb  at  Beni-Hassan.) 

The  Egyptians  possessed  the  potter's  wheel  from  an  early  period,  as 
appears  from  a  painting  on  the  wall  of  one  of  the  tombs  at  Beni-Hassan 
which  are  of  very  ancient  date,  not  far  from  that  of  the  Pyramid  of  Shoo- 
fou.  The  art  of  forming  circular  objects  on  the  wheel  has  scarcely  ad- 
vanced a  step  for  four  thousand  years  ;  and  the  Beni-Hassan  picture,  from 
which  we  reproduce  an  extract  (111.  13),  is  practically  useful  to  instruct 
modern  students  in  the  industry  in  every  pottery  where  the  common 
wares— pots,  pans,  jars,  and  mugs — are  made.  Sometimes  now  the  wheel 
is  turned  by  the  foot,  sometimes  by  a  boy,  rarely  by  machinery.  The 
lump  of  clay  was  then,  as  now,  thrown  down  on  the  wheel,  to  be  shaped 
by  the  hands  and  fingers ;  and  the  modern  custom  of  doing  the  same  has 
given  to  the  English  potter  who  actually  shapes  pottery  with  his  own 
hands  the  name  "  thrower,"  and  to  the  art  the  expression  of  "  throw- 
ing" a  piece. 

The  influx  of  Greek  art  and  Greek  tastes  under  the  Ptolemies  rap- 
idly brought  to  an  end  the  continuous  succession  of  pure  Egyptian  art, 


EGYPT. 


41 


which  had  been  very  much  the  same  for  two  thousand  years.  The  pot- 
tery of  the  later  periods  was  not  materially  different  from  the  common 
pottery  of  Greece.  None  of  the  higher  classes  of  Greek  artistic  pottery 
were  made  in  Egypt.  The  decadence  of  the  art  in  Greece  after  the 
third  century  before  Christ  was  marked ;  and  Egyptian  potteries  indi- 
cate the  same  decay.  With  the  Roman  power  came  Roman  art,  which 
in  pottery  was,  in  the  main,  of  a  low  class. 

The  practice  of  burning  the  dead  which  the  Greeks  introduced  led  to 
the  use  of  pottery  for  the  ashes  of  the  dead.  In  the  year  1855  we  ex- 
amined a  great  number  of  tombs  in  a 
very  extensive  cemetery  then  lying  to 
the  eastward  of  Alexandria,  now  covered 
by  the  modern  growth  of  that  city,  and 
found  many  vases  and  lamps  of  Egyp- 
tian pottery  of  the  Greek  and  Roman 
periods.  One  tomb  alone  contained  over 
a  hundred  vases  in  a  decayed  condition, 
all  of  common  red  pottery,  unglazed, 
without  decoration,  except  now  and  then 
a  few  lines  of  black  on  the  red  clay.  A 
vase,  taken  from  one  of  these  tombs 
(111.  14),  will  serve  as  an  illustration  of 
the  later  Greek  style  in  Egypt.  This 
vase  we  found  sunk  in  a  square  cavity, 
only  large  enough  to  hold  it,  in  the  rock 
floor  of  a  tomb.  It  was  closed  by  a  disk, 
cemented  in  the  orifice,  and  contained 
bones  and  ashes. 

The  New  York  Historical  Society  possesses,  in  the  Abbott  collection, 
a  very  extensive  illustration  of  Egyptian  pottery  and  enamels  of  all  pe- 
riods. Besides  a  great  number  of  figures,  amulets,  scarabsei,  and  small 
objects  in  steatite  and  pottery,  this  collection  exhibits  various  forms  and 
decorations  of  vases,  bottles,  etc.  There  are  several  bottles  in  the  blue 
enamel,  which  are  of  the  form  now  called  "  pilgrim  bottles,"  a  flattened- 
egg  shape,  having  a  small  neck,  and  two  small  strong  handles  for  a  string 
to  pass  through.  Two  are  in  their  original  wicker  cases,  indicating  the 
care  which  was  taken  of  them.  A  curious  vase  is  shaped  in  general  like 
the  kanopos,  the  funeral  vase  for  holding  the  intestines,  etc.,  before  de- 
scribed, but,  instead  of  having  a  movable  cover,  is  in  one  piece,  the  top  a 
hawk's  head.     This  is  soft  pottery,  nine  inches  high,  enamelled  with  tur- 


14.  Grfeco-Egyptian  Mortuary  Vase, 
tomb  at  Alexandria.) 


(From 


42  ANCIENT  POTTEEY. 


quoise-blue.  On  the  front  are  two  cartouches  in  black,  one  containing 
the  praenomen  of  Osorkon  I.,  of  the  Twenty-second  Dynasty,  about  968 
B.C.  This  king  was  son  of  Shishak,  the  spoiler  of  Jerusalem  in  the  days 
of  Rehoboam.  For  some  years  past,  this  vase  has  presented  a  remarkable 
appearance  in  the  glass  ease  in  which  it  stands.  It  is  completely  covered 
by  a  growth  of  hue  hair-like  spinels,  of  a  transparent  crystallization  over 
a  fourth  of  an  inch  in  length.  This  is  not  an  uncommon  occurrence  with 
Egyptian  pottery,  proceeding  from  the  impregnation  of  the  ware  with 
nitre,  or  other  salts,  abounding  in  Egypt. 

A  small  vase,  of  cream-colored  pottery,  is  decorated  with  a  rude  indi- 
cation of  a  human  face  made  of  small  lumps  of  clay  for  eyes  and  nose, 
two  arms  at  the  sides,  two  horns  above.  Mr.  Birch  supposes  this  deco- 
ration to  represent  the  god  T3es,  and  the  vases  thus  ornamented  to  be  of 
Roman  time.  The  Greeks  and  Romans  called  these  vases  Besa,  from  the 
image  on  them.  Those  who  are  fond  of  coincidences  in  art  find  remarka- 
ble resemblance*  between  these  vases  and  some  of  Central  American  fabric 
in  our  collection. 

A  fish-shaped  bottle  in  red  pottery  is  curious.  Pilgrim  bottles,  as  in 
enamel,  are  here  in  red  pottery.  Characteristic  Egyptian  decorations  will 
be  found  on  large,  coarse  vases  in  dashing  lines  of  red  and  black.  The 
red  of  the  Egyptians  can  hardly  be  mistaken,  although  closely  imitated  in 
Cyprus.  A  still  more  characteristic  decoration  is  that  on  small  vases, 
where  the  pottery  is  marbled  with  red  in  rough  daubed  lines  over  the 
surface,  rectangular  spaces  being  filled  with  hieroglyphs  in  black.  A  re- 
markable vase — a  jug  of  buff -colored  pottery — with  large,  globular  bulb 
nearly  a  foot  in  diameter,  a  short  neck,  from  which  a  straight  spout  pro- 
jects horizontally,  with  handle  opposite,  is  decorated  in  black  with  one  de- 
sign often  repeated,  which  might  well  be  taken  for  a  cuttle-fish  with  its 
arms  extended  in  divers  folds.  The  leaf  ornaments  around  the  neck  indi- 
cate a  Greek  period. 

The  cover  of  the  upper  half  of  a  mummy-case,  in  unglazed  red  pot- 
tery, in  the  usual  form,  representing  the  face  and  shoulders  of  a  person, 
is  a  noteworthy  specimen.  The  face  is  colored  yellow,  apparently  before 
baking;  the  head  and  all  the  exterior  are  colored  yellow,  with  red  and 
black  faintly  intermingled,  the  inside  remaining  red.  Holes  through  the 
edges  are  for  fastening  down  this  cover  on  the  sarcophagus,  which  was 
perhaps  also  of  pottery.  The  interior  shows  the  numerous  finger-marks 
of  the  workman  in  the  soft  clay  while  pressing  the  face  into  the  mould. 

That  the  Egyptians  possessed  tin  at  an  early  period  the  abundance  of 
bronze  objects   fully  attests.     Their  knowledge   of  oxides  of  metals  is 


EGYPT.  43 

shown  in  various  ways,  notably  in  the  colors  employed  in  decorating  pot- 
tery. At  the  period  of  the  Exodus  we  are  told  that  the  Israelites  were 
directed  to  purify  the  gold,  silver,  brass,  iron,  tin,  and  lead  taken  from 
the  Midianites.  Tin  might  have  been  obtained  from  India,  as  there  is 
abundant  evidence  of  Egyptian  commerce  with  those  countries  at  least 
fourteen  hundred  years  before  Christ. 

The  glaze  sometimes  used  was  evidently  not  stanniferous,  neither  does 
it  show  the  presence  of  lead.  It  was  siliceous,  and  the  color  was  inter- 
mingled with  the  glaze.  Small  objects  are  found  in  which  the  color 
seems  to  have  been  mixed  with  the  clay,  and  unbaked  beads  of  soft  clay, 
colored  deep-green,  have  been  found  in  Egypt,  and  also  in  Cyprus,  whither 
they  were  probably  exported  from  Egypt.  The  green  and  blue  colors 
were  probably  obtained  from  copper ;  the  red,  which  is  more  rare,  from 
iron;  the  yellow  from  silver;  the  purple  from  manganese  or  gold;  the 
white  from  tin. 

Lamps  are  found,  probably  of  Roman  time,  covered  with  a  hard  green 
glaze,  much  crackled,  and  presenting  a  singular  resemblance  to  Chinese 
enamelled  potteries.  Lamps  of  red  and  buff-colored  pottery  of  the  Ro- 
man period,  down  to  the  fourth  century  of  the  Christian  era  and  later, 
abound.  Christian  inscriptions,  designs,  and  symbols  on  these  lamps  are 
frequent.  A  toad  was  a  common  form  of  the  top  of  a  lamp.  We  have 
several  of  this  form  in  bright-red  pottery.  Names  of  saints,  crosses,  the 
labarum,  religious  sentences,  are  frequent  ornaments.  On  one,  a  red-ware 
lamp  in  our  collection,  obtained  in  Egypt  in  1850,  is  an  inscription,  re- 
markable as  a  rare  instance  of  apparent  quotation  from  the  New  Testa- 
ment.    It  is : 

nisTis  EAnis  ArAnH  aikaiosynh 

{Faith,  IJoj)e,  Charity,  Righteousness). 

Broken  pottery  was  extensively  used  in  Egypt  for  ordinary  writing 
purposes.  At  Thebes,  Sakkara,  and  other  places  such  fragments  are 
abundant,  on  which  are  notes,  memoranda,  and  other  writings  in  black. 
So  common  are  these  that  they  clearly  indicate  a  universal  custom  of 
substituting  pieces  of  pottery  for  papyrus  in  ordinary  use.  The  same 
custom  prevailed  in  Greece. 

The  Egyptian  enamelled  pottery  has  been  called  porcelain  by  many 
archa?olo<>;ists ;  but  although  the  meaning  of  this  word  was  unsettled 
two  centuries  ago,  it  is  now  applied  exclusively  to  translucent  pottery, 
and  its  use  in  reference  to  Egyptian  enamelled  pottery  is  not  correct. 
We  have  seen  that  the  Egyptians  understood  the  use  of  enamel  on  vari- 


44 


Am  TENT  POTTERY. 


ous  substances.  They  also  made  glass,  of  great  beauty  and  in  various 
colors.  They  made  small  objects  of  white  and  colored  enamel  paste, 
translucent,  for  inlaying  in  wood  and  other  substances.  These  objects 
were  sometimes  of  great  beanty,  and  some  of  them  present  very  much 
the  appearance  of  that  soft-paste  porcelain  which  in  many  modern  fac- 
tories approaches  closely  to  opaque  glass.  Although  this  product  is  not 
strictly  porcelain,  unless  it  should  be  found  that  white  clay  enters  into 
its  composition,  it  is  so  close  an  approximation  to  it  that  it  demands 
special  classification  among  the  early  arts  of  the  human  race  which  passed 
from  Egypt  to  other  countries.  A  small  profile  figure  of  Isis  in  our  col- 
lection is  made  of  this  pure  white  translucent  paste,  and  was  probably 
once  inlaid  in  wood. 


15.  Egyptian  Representations  of  Plants  from  the  Monuments. 


The  Egyptian  styles  of  ornamentation  are  so  marked  that  their  pres- 
ence is  at  once  detected  wherever  they  are  found  in  Phenician,  Greek, 
or  other  decoration.  The  illustration  given  of  methods  of  representing 
flowers  may  serve  as  an  example  (111.  15).  Here  are  the  designs,  found 
in  varying  forms  on  Phenician  and  Greek  vases ;  and  here,  perhaps,  is 
the  origin  of  the  "lily  work"  wherewith  Phenician  artists  adorned  the 
pillars  of  the  Temple  of  Solomon. 


ASSYBIA   AND   BABYLONIA.  45 


II.-ASSYRIA  AND  BABYLONIA. 

It  will  be  an  assistance  to  the  student  of  ceramic  art  who  seeks  in 
it  a  guide  and  aid  in  the  study  of  ethnology,  if  he  will  dismiss  from  his 
mind  the  vagaries  of  some  philosophers,  and  start  with  that  simple  un- 
derstanding of  the  origin  of  the  human  race  which  the  accounts  of 
the  Hebrew  Moses  furnish  him.  Even  if  he  were  to  abandon  all  idea 
of  the  inspired,  and  therefore  authoritative,  character  of  those  writings, 
it  remains  true  that  the  study  of  art  up  to  the  present  day  has  in  all  re- 
spects confirmed  their  historic  verity.  No  student  of  ancient  art  can 
find  cause  to  doubt  any  statement  of  the  great  Hebrew  historian  of  the 
early  ages.  Every  discovery  made  by  modern  explorers  among  the  ruins 
of  old  art  which  has  any  bearing  on  the  books  of  Moses,  or  the  later 
Old  Testament  histories,  agrees  with  and  confirms  them.  No  fact  has 
been  found  contradicting  any  one  of  their  statements. 

The  ceramic  student  will  in  the  end  accept  the  Hebrew  history  as 
correct,  since  he  will  find  it  confirmed  "by  all  discoveries  in  this  old  art. 
Starting  with  the  fact  that  a  small  family,  saved  from  the  destruction  of 
a  race,  resided  in  Western  Asia  about  five  thousand  years  ago,  the  study 
of  ancient  art  shows  that  the  families  of  men  spread  eastward  and  north- 
ward, southward  and  westward,  from  this  central  point.  Asia,  Africa,  and 
Europe  were  peopled  slowly  from  the  descendants  of  a  small  family. 
Whence  they  derived  some  of  their  arts  is  not  mere  conjecture.  The 
Hebrew  historian  wrote  in  an  age  of  books.  His  authorities  wTere  abun- 
dant in  the  libraries  of  Egypt.  It  is  evident,  from  the  monuments  and 
the  papyri,  that  long  before  his  time  historians,  poets,  philosophers,  au- 
thors in  great  number,  had  educated  Egypt.  The  words  which  imply 
writing  and  the  materials  for  writing  are  found  in  the  earliest  known 
forms  of  language,  and  are  the  same  in  various  languages  proceeding  from 
the  first  Dispersion.  That  among  the  early  works  there  were  records 
brought  down  through  the  Deluge  is  not  a  violent  theory.  Moses  men- 
tions two  antediluvians  as  the  originators  of  two  important  arts,  and  it 
is  hardly  possible  that  those  arts  had  been  lost,  and  reinvented  after  the 
Deluge  ;  for  in  that  case  he  would  probably  have  named  the  new  in- 
ventor, instead  of  the  old. 

The  scattering  family  of  man  carried  with  them  in  various  directions 
more  or  less  of  the  useful  arts,  and  some  of  the  ornamental.  It  was  not 
until  the  emigrants  had  settled  in  groups,  and  acquired  peculiar  character- 


46  ANQIENT  I'OTTEEY. 


istics  as  tribes  or  nations,  that  styles  of  art  became  marked  by  the  natu- 
ral objects  which  surrounded  them,  and  by  the  religious  emblems  which 
they  adopted. 

These  points  are  important  to  be  kept  in  mind;  for  at  a  late  period, 
compared  with  the  date  of  the  Dispersion,  colonization  sometimes  went 
eastward  from  Europe  into  Asia.  Thus  the  coasts  of  Asia  Minor  were 
overcome  and  settled  by  Hellenic  colonies,  and  Cyprus,  already  peopled 
from  the  East,  received  Arrive  colonists.  But  the  Hellenic  tribes  were 
descendants  of  the  same  family  with  the  Phenicians  among  whom  they 
settled,  or  whose  cities  they  took.  In  art,  as  in  language,  there  are  some- 
times roots  which  are  recognizable,  though  the  word  or  the  object  be 
greatly  changed  from  its  origin;  and  the  student  will  often  find  the  ex- 
planation of  the  presence  of  these  art  roots  in  ancient  Greek,  Phenician, 
and  even  in  Chinese  and  Indian  art,  in  the  common  origin  of  all  the  races. 

The  wonderful  preservation  of  ancient  Egypt,  her  monuments,  and 
her  dead  with  their  household  goods  around  them,  has  made  the  modern 
world  well  acquainted  with  Egyptian  art  from  the  earliest  periods.  Pos- 
sibly,  were  we  as  well  acquainted  with  the  early  art  of  Mesopotamia,  we 
should  find  it  very  much  in  advance  of  that  of  all  other  contemporary 
tribes.  But,  so  far  as  is  now  known,  the  arts  made  no  advance  here  for 
many  centuries.  The  Babylon  and  Nineveh  known  to  modern  explorers 
are  not  cities  of  the  earliest  ages.  Their  history  extends  only  to  the  fif- 
teenth century  before  Christ,  and  even  at  that  period  their  existence  is 
known  only  by  finding  their  names  on  Egyptian  monuments.  "What  civ- 
ilization and  arts  preceded  them  in  the  heart  of  Asia  is  unknown,  except 
from  mounds  of  brick,  stamped  with  the  names  of  kings  of  whose  king- 
doms no  information  remains,  but  which  were  probably  not  much  greater 
than  those  of  the  kings  associated  with  Abraham  after  he  came  out  of 
Chaldea. 

A\  nat  were  the  peculiar  symbols  of  the  religions  of  the  people  in 
Mesopotamia  and  Assyria  in  the  earlier  times  no  means  of  knowing  exist. 
If  it  were  safe  to  form  a  final  opinion  from  present  imperfect  knowledge, 
it  would  appear  that  none  of  the  families  of  men  except  the  Egyptian 
had  a  sufficiently  long  residence  in  peace  and  prosperity  to  acquire  char- 
acteristic arts  until  more  than  a  thousand  years  after  the  Dispersion. 
Egyptian  art  first  acquired  age,  and  with  age  power;  for,  explain  it  how 
we  may,  art  has  always  gained  force  and  influence  by  age.  And  thus, 
when  the  various  tribes  who  had  remained  in  the  Euphrates  valley  or 
located  themselves  in  Phenicia  and  in  the  eastern  parts  of  Europe,  who 
had  led  wandering  lives,  or  had  simply  existed  in  barbaric  contentment 


ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA.  47 

and  simplicity,  began  to  build  cities,  form  governments,  and  become  fitted 
for  the  introduction  of  ornamental  in  addition  to  useful  arts,  the  Egyp- 
tian influences  were  everywhere  omnipotent.  The  Phenician  were  far 
in  advance  of  the  Hellenic  tribes,  for  the  latter  had,  down  to  700  B.C., 
little  or  no  knowledge  of  ornamental  art.  Whether  the  Babylonians  and 
Assyrians  were  in  advance  of,  or  learners  from  the  Phenicians  is  doubt- 
ful. Less  is  known  at  present  of  their  early  arts  than  of  the  Phenician; 
and  in  the  ceramic  art,  what  little  is  known  of  the  Mesopotamian  families 
shows  that,  while  originally  possessed  of  the  art  for  purposes  of  utility, 
the  knowledge  of  using  it  for  beauty  was  derived  from  Egypt.  It  is 
among  the  possible  results  of  recent  discoveries  and  of  explorations  yet 
to  be  made,  that  the  order  of  progression  and  transmission  of  the  fine  arts 
will  appear  to  have  been  from  Egypt  to  the  Phenicians,  and  from  the 
Phenicians  to  Assyria  and  Babylonia  as  well  as  to  Greece. 

The  earliest  record  of  pottery  is  found  in  the  first  book  of  Moses 
(Gen.  xi.,  2,  3),  where  it  is  said  of  the  wandering  families  of  men,  "  as  they 
journeyed  from  the  east,  that  they  found  a  plain  in  the  land  of  Shinar; 
and  they  dwelt  there.  And  they  said  one  to  another,  Go  to,  let  us  make 
brick,  and  burn  them  thoroughly.  And  they  had  brick  for  stone,  and 
slime  had  they  for  mortar.'"  Men  who  knew  how  to  make  brick,  of 
course  made  pottery  in  other  forms.  The  art  of  brick-making  was  pur- 
sued in  Babylonia  and  Assyria  to  an  extent  elsewhere  unparalleled.  Re- 
mains of  vast  brick  walls  of  cities  and  edifices  abound.  The  brick  were 
sometimes  only  sun-dried,  sometimes  baked.  Both  kinds  are  found  enter- 
ing into  the  structure  of  the  same  building,  and  vast  mounds,  hills  of 
ruins  in  brick,  mark  the  site  of  ancient  towns,  palaces,  and  fortresses  on 
the  plain  of  Shinar  and  in  all  parts  of  Mesopotamia.  These  bricks,  as  in 
Egypt,  frerpiently  bear  the  name  of  the  king  in  whose  reign  they  were 
made.  The  oldest  bricks  hitherto  discovered  are  those  found  by  Mr. 
Loftus  at  Warka  (by  some  supposed  to  be  Ur  of  the  Chaldees).  These 
have  the  name  of  a  King  Urukh,  with  a  dedication  to  the  moon,  and  are 
supposed  to  date  about  2200  b.c.  Bricks  of  some  of  the  immediate  suc- 
cessors of  Urukh  were  also  found.  These  are  exceptional  in  antiquity. 
"VVe  have  no  series  of  dated  works  in  pottery  from  this  time  forward,  al- 
though the  vast  ruins  waiting  to  be  explored  will  perhaps  yield  to  future 
search  an  historical  succession  of  ceramic  objects.  Mr.  Loftus  found 
bricks  with  the  name  of  a  king  who  reigned  about  1500  b.c,  and  after 
this  there  is  a  gap  in  the  succession  of  more  than  five  hundred  years. 
After  880  b.c.  numerous  edifices  of  brick  furnish  examples  with  the 
names  of  kings,  as  of  Assurnazirpal,  8S0  b.c.  ;  Shalmaneser  II.,  850  b.c.  ; 


is 


ANCIENT  POTTERY. 


Sargon,  709  b.c.  Bricks  are  found  of  Sennacherib,  Nebuchadnezzar,  and 
other  monarchs  named  in  the  sacred  books.  Perhaps  in  nothing  is  the 
enduring  character  of  pottery  better  illustrated  than  in  the  fact  that  on 

the  bricks  of  2200  b.c.  are  visible  the  marks  of  the  feet  of  birds  and 


16.  Babylonian  Baked  Brick,  with  Name  of  Nebuchadnezzar;  12  inches  square. 

weasels,  which  ran  over  them  when  they  were  lying  in  the  sunshine,  to 
dry  before  baking. 

In  later  times  the  Assyrians  and  Babylonians  learned  from  Egypt  the 
art  of  enamelling  pottery,  and  used  stanniferous  enamel.  Then  they  cov- 
ered the  edges  of  brick  with  brilliant  color,  and  made  walls  which  shone 
with  great  splendor.  They  did  not  equal  the  Egyptians  in  the  finish  of 
their  work,  but  employed  it  on  a  much  grander  scale.  Patterns  ran  along 
the  walls  from  brick  to  brick,  in  white,  blue,  black,  red,  yellow.  Fig- 
ures of  men  were  executed,  the  complete  figure  requiring  several  bricks. 
Flowers,  chain  patterns,  and  animals  were  painted  in  the  enamels,  as 
well  as  inscriptions.  The  remains  of  the  temple  of  Belus  at  the  Birs 
Nimroud,  examined  by  Sir  II.  Rawlinson,  indicated  that  it  was  a  terraced 
pyramid,  each  terrace  made  of  enamelled  brick  of  a  different  color.  The 
highest  terrace,  supposed  to  have  been  dedicated  to  the  moon,  was  green- 
-ish  gray;  the  next  blue,  dedicated  to  Mercury,  and  this  is  supposed  to 
have  been  enamelled  and  baked  in  position  after  it  was  built.  The  next 
terrace  was  yellow,  dedicated  to  the  sun  ;  the  next  pink,  to  Mars  ;  the 
next  red,  to  Jupiter;  the  lowest  black,  to  Saturn.  Under  this  the  founda- 
tion was  unbaked  brick.  All  the  bricks  found  in  this  ruin  are  of  the 
time  of  Nebuchadnezzar.  Imagination  can  hardly  exaggerate  the  splen- 
dor of  the  enamelled  walls  and  palaces  of  Babylon  and  Nineveh.  They 
have  their  successors  in  the  exquisite  Mrorks  of  the  Saracens,  who  alone 


ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA. 


40 


of  modern  nations  have  covered  the  exteriors  of  buildings  with  enamelled 
faience. 

Few  vases  are  known  of  Babylonian  or  Assyrian  work.     Such  as  have 
been  found  resemble  the  Egyptian,  but  have  no  special  characteristics  as 

works  of  art.  A  few  specimens,  discovered  by 
Mr.  Layard  and  Mr.  Loft  us,  give  us  no  idea  of 
the  style  of  decorating  pottery. 

Both  the  Babylonians  and  the  Assyrians  used 
pottery  for  the  purposes  to  which  we  apply  paper. 
They  impressed  on  sheets  or  plaques  of  prepared 
clay  (Bis.  18,  19)  writings  which  they  desired  to 
make  permanent,  and  baked  them  for  preserva- 
tion. No  equally  sure  method  of  preserving  rec- 
IV.  Earthen  Jars  found  in  Baby-  or(js  [s  known.     The  discovery  by  Mr.  Layard 

of  the  library  of  one  of  the  palaces  of  Nineveh 
has  furnished  to  modern  scholars  a  great  quantity  of  the  literature  of 
ancient  Assyria.  The  cuneiform  legends  are  im- 
pressed either  with  a  special  instrument  or  with 
the  corner  of  a  metal  rule.  The  ordinary  busi- 
ness of  Nineveh  was  carried  on  by  the  aid  of  this 
art.  Contracts  for  the  sale  of  property,  transfers 
of  lands,  slaves,  and  other  possessions,  remain  to 
this  day  in  sharp  characters  on  the  small  pottery 
tablets,  stamped  with  the  seals  of  the  contracting 
parties.  Engraved  cylinders  and  signets  in  stone 
were  used  for  impressions  on  clay.  Books  were 
thus  written  and  preserved.  It  is  estimated  that 
twenty  thousand  pieces  of  ancient  Assyrian  tab- 
lets and  books  have  been  found.  The  lamented 
George  Smith  has  given  from  such  pottery  pages 
(111.  20)  the  Chaldaic  accounts  of  the  Genesis  and 
of  the  Deluge,  and  future  examination  is  destined 
to  bring  out  from  the  same  sources  much  of  the  history  of  Assyria  and 
Babylonia.  Sometimes  these  tablets  are  double,  one  containing  within 
itself  a  duplicate  record.  They  are  found  in  Babylonia  as  well  as  As- 
syria. A  series  found  at  Warka  extends  through  the  reigns  of  Nabopal- 
lasar  (GOO  b.c.),  Nebuchadnezzar,  Nabonidus,  Cyrus,  Cambyses,  Darius, 
Artaxerxes,  and  the  Seleucidan  monarchs,  down  to  the  second  century 
before  the  Christian  era. 

Cylinders  and  hexagonal  prisms  in  pottery  were  covered  with  inscrip- 


18.  [nscril 


lot  of  Pottery. 


50 


ANCIENT  POTTERY. 


tions  minutely  executed.     These  were  sometimes  deposited  under  the  cor- 
ners of  the  platforms  of  public  buildings. 

Some  small  pottery  tablets  with  relief  figures  have  been  found,  which 
Mr.  Birch  suggests  may  have  been  sketches  by 
artists  preparatory  to  important  works. 

Among  the  most  remarkable  objects  in  pot- 
tery are  coffins,  found  by  Mr.  Layard  at  Niffer, 
and  in  vast  numbers  at  Warka  by  Mr.  Loftus, 
who  says  that  this  spot  appears  to  have  been  a 
sacred  burial-place  for  a  j^eriod  of  probably  twen- 
ty-five hundred  years.  He  found  the  burial- 
mounds  to  be  literally  masses  of  the  dead  to  the 
depth  of  thirty  feet ;  and  he  estimated  the  depth 
at  thirty  feet  more.  He  does  not  state  that  he 
found  here  the  large  urn -shaped  vase  ;  but  this 
was  a  common  Babylonian  form  of  coffin,  lined 
with  bitumen  and  covered,  sometimes  with  brick, 
sometimes  with  a  pottery  lid.  Sir  Henry  Rawlin- 
son  found  in  such  jars  skeletons,  and  skulls  which 
could  not  possibly  have  gone  in  through  the  small 
orifice.  He  therefore  infers  a  custom  of  making 
first  the  lower  portion,  which  received  the  body, 
and  placing  or  moulding  over  it  the  upper  portion,  then  baking  the  jar 
with  the  enclosed  remains.  Mr.  Loftus  found  numerous  specimens  in  a 
form  resembling  "an  oval  dish -cover,  the  sides  sloping  outward  towards 
the  base.1'  These  were  from  four  to  seven  feet  long,  two  feet  wide,  one 
to  three  feet  deep.  These  are  supposed  to  be  Babylonian.  But  the  most 
interesting  coffins  were  slipper-shaped ;  the  oval  opening  closed  with  a  lid. 
These  were  ornamented  with  embossed  figures  of  warriors,  in  panels,  the 
whole  visible  surface  covered  with  a  rich  green  enamel  on  the  exterior, 
and  blue  within  the  aperture.  The  green,  Mr.  Loftus  thinks,  was  changed 
by  time  from  the  original  blue.  The  material  is  yellow  clay  mixed  with 
straw.  The  interior  surface  shows  marks  of  the  reed  matting  on  which  it 
was  formed.  These  coffins  probably  date  from  the  Sassanian  period,  and 
are  among  the  latest  specimens  of  glazed  pottery  of  ancient  art  continued 
down  towards  modern  Saracenic  work. 

With  the  remains  of  the  dead  at  Warka  were  found  various  pottery 
objects— cups,  small  vases,  and  images,  but  none  which  appear  to  be  defi- 
nitely assignable  to  an  early  date.  Many  images  in  pottery  have  been 
found  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  which  are  of  the  same  general  character 


19.  Inscribed  Tablet  of  Pottery. 


ASSYBIA   AND   BABYLONIA. 


51 


with  many  found  in  Cyprus  (111.  23),  and  closely  resemble  examples  in 
the  Cesnola  collection. 

A  remarkable  class,  found  in  considerable  quantity  by  Mr.  Layard  in 
the  ruins  of  ancient  Babylonia,  consists  of  unglazed  pottery  bowls,  on 
which  are  inscriptions  written  in  black.  The  illustrations  (24,  25)  will 
show  the  form  of  these,  with  a  fac-simile  of  one  of  the  inscriptions.     Mr. 


20.  One  of  the  Tablets  of  the  Delude. 


Thomas  Ellis  (of  the  British  Museum)  examined,  deciphered,  and  trans- 
lated several  of  the  inscriptions,  which  proved  to  be  in  the  ancient  Chal- 
dean language,  written  in  characters  wholly  unknown,  and  never  before 
seen  in  Europe.  The  subjects  of  the  inscriptions  are  amulets,  or  charms 
against  evil  spirits,  diseases,  and  misfortune.  The  characters  answer  to 
the  description  given  of  the  most  ancient  Hebrew  letters  in  the  Baby- 


52 


.l.\c IK. XT  POTTERY. 


11.  Terra-cotta  Tablet  from  Babvlon. 


Ionian  Talmud,  which  contains  an  account  of  the  nature  and  origin  of 
the  letters  used  by  the  Jews.  The  words  Hallelujah  and  Selah  occur  in 
nearly  all.  Pure  Hebrew  sentences  are  mixed  with  Chaldaic.  Mr.  Ellis 
regards  it  as  quite  certain  that  the  inscriptions  were  written  by  Jews ;  and 


'^■J.  Glazed  Coffins  from  Warka. 


ASSYRIA   AND  BABYLONIA. 


53 


there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  they  were  the  work  of  descendants  of 
the  "  people  of  the  captivity."  The  Hebrew  population  of  Babylonia  was 
large  in  the  early  centuries  of  our  era.  Ben- 
jamin of  Tudela,  who  travelled  in  the  twelfth 
century  for  the  purpose  of  reporting  the  con- 
dition of  the  Hebrews  in  various  parts  of  the 
East,  found  large  numbers  of  them,  and  in 
Baghdad  ten  Hebrew  colleges.  He  gives  a 
list  of  presidents  of  thcsa  colleges,  who  were 
called  BaUanim,  "the  Idle,"  because  their  sole 
occupation  consisted  in  the  discharge  of  public 
business — a  name  which  would  perhaps  better 
apply  to  some  modern  holders  of  office.  In 
Baghdad  at  that  time  was  Kabbi  Daniel  Ben 
Chisdai,  descended  from  King  David,  and 
bearing  the  title  among  the  Jews  of  "Lord  Prince  of  the  Captivity." 
The  Mohammedans  recognized  him  by  the  title  "  Saidna  Ben  Daoud" — 


23.  Figures  of  Assyrian  Venus. 


24.  Inscribed  Bowl  from  Babylon.     Diameter  0  inches,  depth  3  inches. 


54 


ANCIENT  POTTERY. 


"  Honorable  Son  of  David."  This  and  other  evidence  indicate  an  inter- 
esting and  unwritten  chapter  of  Hebrew  history,  which  is  important  here 
only  because  these  ceramic  relics  are  among  the  few  links  in  the  art  which 
possibly  connect  the  Babylonian  and  the  modern  Persian  work.  Mr.  Lay- 
ard  is  of  opinion  that  the  specimen  illustrated  with  its  inscription  (111.  24) 
is  tin-  most  ancient  found,  and  "might  be  referred  to  the  second  or  third 


25.  Inscribed  Bowls  from  Babylon. 

century  before  Christ,  but  may  be  of  a  later  period,"'  while  others  are  of  a 
more  recent  date,  possibly  as  late  as  the  fifth  century  of  our  era.  Others 
are  of  opinion  that  these  bowls  may  be  much  more  modern ;  and  it  has 
been  said  that  similar  wares  are  made  in  some  parts  of  the  East  at  the 
present  time.     The  authority  for  this  statement  is  not  given. 

No  distinction  has  been  attempted,  in  this  sketch,  between  the  pottery 
of  Babylonia  and  that  of  Assyria,  since  they  are  in  all  respects  similar. 


III.-PHENICIA. 

Among  that  portion  of  the  human  race  who  after  the  Dispersion  wan- 
dered to  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  gradually  spread  themselves 
over  its  islands  and  along  its  coasts,  a  unity  of  language,  religion,  and  art 
bound  together  a  family  whom  we  are  accustomed  to  call  Phenician,  but 
of  whom  we  have  hitherto  known  little.  Their  art  period  extends  from 
the  fifth  century  before  Christ  back  into  unknown  centuries.  That  they 
had  artists  and  art  was  evident  from  the  application  made  to  them  by 
Solomon,  and  the  valuable  aid  rendered  by  them  to  that  monarch.  Their 
cities  on  the  Philistine  and  Syrian  coasts  are  historical;  but  ruin  and  time 
have  sadly  erased  the  records  of  their  work.  Suddenly  in  our  own  day 
their  art  has  come  to  light,  in  pottery,  bronze,  precious  metals,  gems,  and 
sculpture,  in  surprising  brilliancy.  Cyprus  was  Phenician  from  an  early 
date,  and  the  explorations  of  General  L.  P.  Di  Cesnola  in  Cyprus  have  not 
only  revealed  an  immense  amount  of  material  for  Phenician  studies,  but 
have  also  cast  a  flood  of  li-ht  on   the  origin  of  Greek  art.     The  Cesnola 


PHENICIA. 


55 


collection,  which  now  forms  part  of  the  treasures  of  the  Metropolitan 
Museum  of  Art  in  New  York,  includes  several  thousand  vases,  a  large  col- 


26.  Phenician  Vase.     Buff  pottery  decorated  in  black.     (Cesnola  Coll.) 

lection  of  statuary,  bronzes,  and  exquisite  gold  and  silver,  the  work  of  suc- 
cessive centuries,  and  of  very  many  generations  of  men  in  one  locality. 
The  latest  specimens  are  of  Roman  times,  in  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries 
after  Christ.  The  earliest  specimens  are  of  unknown  date,  but  doubtless 
many  are  of  a  time  preceding  the  Egyptian  conquest  of  Cyprus,  about 
1440  b.c.  There  is  here  a  history  of  local  art  extending  through  a 
period  of  two  thousand  years,  illustrated  by  a  vast  number  of  objects. 
These  were  found  chiefly  in  tombs. 

A  very  interesting  portion  of  the  collection,  of  the  highest  archaeo- 
logical importance,  consists  of  articles  of  the  most  artistic  fabric  and 
taste  in  gold,  engraved, gems,  silver,  bronze,  alabaster,  and  pottery,  found 
in  the  treasure-vaults  of  a  temple  at  Kurium,  where  they  had  lain  intact 


56 


AXCIENT  POTTERY. 


since  the  destruction  of  that  city  and  its  temples.  The  character  of  these 
articles  sufficiently  indicates  that  they  were  an  accumulation  of  long  time, 
probably  some  centuries,  during  which  they  had,  from  age  to  age,  been 
added  to  the  temple  treasury  as  gifts  of  devotees.  These,  therefore,  alone 
afford  a  subject  of  study  of  great  interest,  since  they  illustrate  an  art  his- 
tory which  comes  to  an  abrupt  conclusion  at  the  date  of  the  destruction 
of  Kurium.  That  date  fixed  would  furnish  a  trustworthy  starting-point 
in  the  study  of  both  Greek  and  Phenician  art;  for  among  the  illustra- 
tions are  some  which  belong  to  the  early  Greek  school,  others  which 
show  the  union  of  Greek  and  Phenician  influence,  many  which  indicate 
Egyptian  influence,  and  many  purely  Phenician.  Unfortunately,  this  is 
not  fixed  with  accuracy.  It  was  probably  about  the  middle  of  the  sixth 
century  before  Christ.     It  cannot  have  been  far  from  that  time. 


27.  Phenician  Vases.     (Cesnola  Coll.) 

Historians  furnish  very  little  knowledge  of  Greek  art  history  in  this 
century  which  is  trustworthy,  and  occasional  discoveries  made  hitherto 
have  afforded  little  more  than  material  for  theories.  But  there  is  here 
very  good  evidence  that  the  late  history  of  Phenician  art  is  the  early 
history  of  Greek  art  in  Cyprus;  that  the  former  is  the  mother  of  the 
latter.  The  very  regular  succession,  indicated  not  only  in  the  Kurium 
treasure,  but  in  the  thousands  of  specimens  in  the  entire  Cesnola  col- 
lection, assists  in  the  explanation  and  correct  classification  of  many  ex- 
ceptional specimens  of  early  Greek  art,  and  art  preceding  the  pure  Greek, 


PHENICIA.  57 


which  have  been  discovered  elsewhere,  and  heretofore  arranged  with 
much  doubt. 

The  limits  of  this  volume  forbid  an}7  attempt  at  a  thorough  account  of 
the  Phenician  potteries.  Nothing  more  can  be  accomplished  than  a  brief 
description  of  the  varieties,  which  will  be  useful  as  an  aid  to  their  exami- 
nation and  study. 

The  potteries  of  Cyprus  show  a  succession  of  art  history  which  may 
be  divided  into  styles,  which  are  not  always,  however,  of  distinct  periods, 
for  the  earlier  styles  prevailed  more  or  less  in  later  periods.  These  styles 
are : 

1.  Phenician;  2.  Egypto  -  Phenician  ;  3.  Gk^co  -  Phenician  ;  4. 
Gkeek  ;  5.  Roman. 

The  difficulty  of  assigning  specimens  to  the  earlier  periods  of  time 
arises  from  the  danger  of  mistaking  rude  work  of  poor  potters  in  late 
times  for  archaic  attempts  at  art.  This  difficulty  attends  the  examina- 
tion of  all  ancient  pottery.  There  is  a  very  close  resemblance,  especially 
in  attempts  at  the  human  figure,  between  the  first  work  of  barbarians 
and  the  mud  images  made  by  modern  children.  But  there  is  no  hesita- 
tion in  classing  some  decorations  as  purely  Phenician,  especially  with 
the  aiding  facts  that  these  were  found  in  Phenician 
tombs,  and,  in  one  instance  at  least,  accompanied  with 
a  Phenician  legend.  Checks,  diamonds,  squares  of  al- 
ternating color,  incised  decorations  in  patterns,  circles 
rudely  drawn,  circles  sharply  drawn,  singly  or  in  con- 
centric groups,  and  accompanied  by  lines  or  bands 
around  the  objects  —  these  more  or  less  elaborately 
arranged  on  the  vases  —  are  all  characteristic  Pheni- 
cian decorations.  Checks,  zigzags,  and  diamonds  are 
the  first  ornaments  of  barbarians.  But  the  Phcni-  28.  Phenician  Vase. 
cians  seem  to  have  been  the  originators  of  system-  (Cesnola  Coll.) 

atic  decoration.  No  earlier  instances  are  known  of  what  may  be  called 
styles.  Mere  checks  or  diamonds,  common  to  savage  tribes,  are  here  ar- 
ranged in  columns,  bands,  compartments,  in  parallel  groups,  dividing  the 
surface  of  the  pottery  into  equal  portions  ;  and  these  patterns  occur  on 
many  objects,  thus  forming  styles.  They  are  on  objects  of  various  date, 
and  probably  more  or  less  of  these  antedate  the  Egyptian  conquest. 

That  conquest  produced  a  marked  effect,  which  characterizes  Egypto- 
Phenician  art.  Egyptian  styles,  symbols,  colors,  and  decorations  abound, 
executed  by  Phenicians  in  Phenician  manner,  unlike  that  of  Egyptian 
workmen,  and  intermingled  with  Phenician  symbols  and  characteristics. 


58 


ANCIENT  POTTERY. 


Birds,  fish,  and  lotus-flowers  are  painted  in  deep  red  and  black,  at  first 
singly  or  scattered  on  the  sides  of  vases,  then  arranged  in  groups,  zones. 
or  bands.  Perhaps  this  last  arrangement  does  not  occur  until  the  begin- 
ning of  the  next  period.  The  human  figure  is  very  rare.  The  Egypto- 
Fhenician  style  was  used  only  by  the  Phenicians;  it  was  not  known  in 
Egypt.  When  the  other  branch  of  the  human  race,  who  had  crossed  the 
sea  from  the  Ionian  coast  to  Greece,  and  who  were  practically  barbarians 
until  educated  by  contact  with  the  Phenicians,  began  to  colonize  Cyprus. 
the  new  element  introduced  a  new  spirit  into  Phenician  art;  and  here 
commences  Gk.eoo- Phenician  art.  The  pure  Phenician  had  remained 
synchronous  with  the  Egypto-Phenician  through  the  previous  period,  and 
still  survived.  The  Greek  mind  at  first  contributed  nothing  original  to 
these  arts,  but  seized  them,  adapted  them  to  Greek  tastes  as  those  tastes 
developed  and  improved,  introduced  the  union  of  pictorial  illustration  of 
story  and  history  with  the  beauty  of  form  which  was  Phenician,  and  so, 
gradually,  brought  into  existence  the  splendor  of  Greek  ceramic  art. 
The  Phenicians  and  Greeks  worked  contemporaneously,  and  it  wTas  not 
till  during  or  after  the  sixth  century  before  Christ  that  Phenician  art 
was  wholly  merged  in  the  Greek.  But  the  Phenicians  had  submitted  to 
the  superior  power  of  the  Grecian  intellect,  accepted  new  ideas,  modified 
their  styles  in  painting  and  sculpture,  and  thus  the  latest  work  of  the 
Phenicians  was  probably  in  the  style  called  Gmeco-Phenician,  although 

the  Egypto-Phenician  still  survived,  and  the 
Greeks  founded  on  it  the  style  hereafter  de- 
scribed, sometimes  called  Doric. 

The  vast  collection  of  General  Cesnola  must 
be  studied  with  care  before  it  will  be  possible  to 
distribute  the  specimens  in  their  respective  pe- 
riods of  time.  \Ve  must  be  content  at  first  to 
classify  them  by  the  styles  of  pottery  or  of  dec- 
oration, remembering  that  in  some  styles  the 
specimens  are  of  various  periods  of  time,  and 
that  different  styles  are  of  contemporary  date. 
Nor  are  the  styles  of  decoration  always  peculiar 
to  the  class  of  pottery,  although  certain  styles  of 
decoration  prevail  on  certain  classes. 

1.  Cream -colored  unglazed  pottery,  coarse 
paste,  rough  surface,  without  decoration  in  color.  This  class  includes  ob- 
jects made  at  different  periods,  very  ancient,  and  contemporary  with  the 
Greek.      Cups,    bowls,   vases,   paterae,   lamps,   and    other    useful    articles 


29.  Venus  with  Attendants. 
(Cesnola  Cull.) 


PHEN1CIA.  59 


abound.  Images  of  deities,  of  men,  bulls,  birds,  horses,  fish,  mostly  very 
rude,  are  also  abundant.  Many  vases  are  in  the  shapes  of  animals,  espe- 
cially of  deer,  bulls,  fish,  and  birds  resembling  ducks.  Some  of  these  forms 
may  imply  Egyptian  ideas.  Images  of  the  Ycnus  of  the  Phenieians  are 
found  in  a  variety  of  forms,  from  mere  slabs  of  clay,  with  slight  indica- 
tions of  features  and  form  in  relief,  to  good  work  showing  a  great  degree 
of  taste  and  skill. 

2.  The  same  unglazed  cream-white  pottery  decorated  in  black  only. 
The  objects  in  this  class  are  generally  archaic  in  appearance,  and  some 
of  them  are  among  the  first  specimens  of 
decoration.  There  is  no  pretence  to  artistic 
style.  The  black  lines  are  rudely  drawn,  in 
checks,  diamond  patterns,  parallel  masses, 
and  cross  hatchings,  sometimes  in  bands, 
perpendicular  or  around  the  piece.  Figures 
of  animals,  and  vases  in  animal  shapes,  are 
rudely  daubed  with  dashes  of  black.  These 
primitive  decorations  fall  into  regularity  of 
arrangement,   making   characteristic    styles, 

Such  as  appear  OII  vases  in  111.  27.  30.  Bottle  in  Bird  Form.     (Class  2, 

3.  Brick -red  unglazed  pottery  without  Cesnola  CoU.) 

color  decoration.  Objects  in  this  primitive  style  of  pottery  are  of  various 
forms,  including  many  images  of  Venus  which  arc  exceedingly  early,  and 
a  few  specimens  which  are  important  in  size  and  appearance.  A  large 
vase,  bottle-shaped,  with  small  neck,  two  feet  high,  has  raised  ornamenta- 
tion about  the  neck  descending  on  the  bulb,  in  ribbons  or  twists  of  clay. 
Immense  caldron-shaped  vessels  (pitlioi ?)  have  each  two  spouts  side  by 
side.  In  general,  the  red  pottery  was  covered  with  white  clay  before 
baking,  and  this  is  included  in  the  class  following. 

4.  Unglazed  pottery,  cream-white,  decorated  in  colors.  In  this  class 
is  included  pottery  of  buff  paste,  and  also  of  brick-red  paste  covered  with 
a  surface  of  cream -colored  clay.  The  colors  used  are  chiefly  red  and 
black,  occasionally  brown.  Of  this  class  are  specimens  from  the  times 
before  the  Egyptian  conquest  down  to  the  Greek  period,  in  many  styles 
of  decoration.  This  is  apparently  the  predecessor  of  the  oldest  Greek 
pottery  decorated  in  the  style  heretofore  known  as  Doric  or  Egyptian. 
The  earliest  decorations  are  like  those  on  Class  2,  and  are  probably 
contemporary  with  some  of  them,  the  only  difference  being  in  the  in- 
troduction of  red  lines  with  the  black.  This  peculiar  red  color  is  char- 
acteristic   of  Egyptian   work,  and  may   have   been    derived  from  Egypt 


60 


ANCIENT  POTTERY. 


>1.  Egypto-Pnenician  Wine-jug.     (Oesnola 
Coll.) 


32.  Egvpto-Phenician  Wine-jug.     (Cesnola 
Coll.) 


before  the  Conquest.  The  progress  of  art  was  exceedingly  slow  in 
Cyprus,  if,  indeed,  there  was  any  progress  for  a  thousand  years.  The 
Egyptian  influence  introduced  the  lotus -flower  and  certain  large  water- 
birds,  which  are  the  most  striking  characteristics  of  the  decoration  after 
the  Conquest.  On  one  ancient  vase  a  rude  figure  has  a  remote  re- 
semblance to  a  man;  on  another,  a  buff -colored  vase  with  a  few  black 
lines  on  its  neck,  is  a  full-length  figure  of  a  negro  boy,  probably  a  slave, 
rudely  daubed  in  black.  Deer  and  other  animals  are  rare,  but  appear 
on  a  few  vases;  and  on  one  the  full-length  human  figure,  clothed  in 
colored  Phenician  garments,  for  the  first  time  in  history  makes  its  ap- 
pearance on  pottery.  The  illustrations  (31,  32)  show  the  two  sides  of  a 
wine-jug  nine  inches  high,  on  which  two  figures  appear,  among  Egyptian 
symbols,  their  heads  turned  awkwardly  away  so  as  to  give  the  profiles. 
The  artist  was  unable  to  paint  a  front  face,  and  forced  the  position.  The 
faces  are  drawn  in  black,  the  dresses  red;  the  sashes,  which  fall  in  front, 
are  black,  the  simple  pattern  being  left  open,  showing  the  cream-clay 
color  of  the  vase.  This  vase  is  important  as  being  one  of  the  earliest 
known  specimens  of  ceramic  art  on  which  the  human  form  is  represented 


FHENICIA. 


61 


3.  Symbols 
on  Pheai- 
cian  Pot- 
tery. 


iii  colors.  Its  date  may  approximate  to  1000  B.C.,  but  this  is  mere  con- 
jecture. 

A  vase  somewhat  thinner  than  others  of  this  class,  and  perhaps  be- 
longing to  a  place  midway  between  this  and  Class  5,  is  important  be- 
cause having  Phenician  letters  on  the  surface  baked  with  the  vase.  Its 
form  is  graceful,  urn-shaped,  the  two  handles  on  each  side  springing  like 
slender  horns,  and  curving  over  and  downward  in  opposite  di- 
rections. The  horns  spring  from  one  oblong  root,  and  on  this 
in  black  are  eyes  and  mouth,  indicating  a  head,  perhaps  of  a 
deer  or  a  bull.  The  decoration  is  in  checker  and  diamond  pat- 
terns of  black  and  brown,  the  checks  outlined  in  black  and  filled 
in  with  brown.  Red  bands  run  around  the  vase  and  its  foot. 
Another  somewhat  similar  vase  has  the  body  fluted  perpendicu- 
larly, a  frequent  style  of  ornament,  which  may  have  been  origi- 
nally derived  from,  and  adopted  in  imitation  of,  shells  which 
abound  on  the  Mediterranean.  This  class  includes  articles  of 
late  period  showing  Greek  characteristics. 

Among  the  most  frequent  decorations  on  this  class  of  vases 
are  broad  concentric  circles,  of  alternate  red  and  black,  sometimes  around 
a  central  figure  in  the  shape  of  a  Greek  cross.  On  these,  as  on  other 
classes,  the  peculiar  Asiatic  sign,  known  as  the  Swastika,  is  frequent. 
This  (the  first  of  the  three  symbols  in  111.  33)  has  also  been  called 
"the  Sign  of  Life."  Its  signification  is  wholly  unknown,  but,  like  the 
Meander  pattern,  it  is  a  direct  derivative  from  a  decoration  in  checks. 
On  one  vase  this  sign  is  placed  in  the  open  mouth  of  a  fish,  an  arrow 

pointing  towards  it,  while  a  stork  pierces  the 
fish  with  his  bill.  Another  common  sign  or 
symbol  used  on  these  vases  is  a  cross  with 
clots  between  the  arms,  perhaps  another  form 
of  the  sign  of  life.  Another  very  common 
decoration  is  a  row,  longer  or  shorter,  of 
lines  like  arrow-heads,  one  within  another. 

5.  Cream-colored  unglazed  pottery,  near- 
ly white,  very  compact  paste,  thin  ware,  dark- 
colored  body,  covered  with  a  fine  white  clay, 

which  is  polished  down  to   a  hard   surface 
34.  Phenician  Bottle.     (Cesnola  Coll.)       £,  ,  •  ,■>  ,. 

*■  '   often   approximating  to  the  appearance  of 

enamel.  The  decoration  is  chiefly  in  archaic  styles,  bands  of  checker  and 
diamond  patterns  rudely  drawn,  in  a  brownish  black,  sometimes  a  deep 
black.      Bowls  large  and  small,  water  and  wine  jugs,  cups  and  patera21, 


62 


ANCIENT  POTTERY. 


are  numerous;  other  forms  rare.  The  bowls,  usually  shaped  like  sections 
of  the  gourd,  are  apparently  imitations  of  the  primitive  gourd  utensils,  and 
almost  or  quite  as  thin,  with  one  or  with  two  projecting  handles. 

Some  large  vases  of  this  ware  are  highly  interesting.  One,  a  krater 
of  fine  form,  is  decorated  with  horses  and  chariots,  following  one  another 
around  the  vase,  separated  by  broad  waving  bands  which  may  represent 
streams  of  water.  The  details  of  this  decoration,  though  unartistic,  are 
minute  and  full  of  instruction  as  to  Phenician  vehicles,  harness,  etc.,  and 
the  vase  occupies  an  early  position  among  Grseco-Phenician  painted  sub- 
jects. Many  of  the  objects,  especially  thin  bowls,  are  fire-cracked  and 
warped  out  of  shape  in  baking.  This  ware  was  possibly  among  the 
Phenicians  an  object  of  luxury,  occupying  a  position  not  unlike  that 
which  porcelain  formerly  held  in  Europe  and  America  in  contrast  with 
pottery. 

6.  Lustrous  wares,  black  or  red,  decorated  with  incised  lines  filled  in 
with  white  clay.     This   is  a   very  remarkable   class,  of  which  there  are 

numerous  specimens  —  great  bowls  over   a 


35.  Graeco-Pheniciau  Vase.     (Cesnola 

('(,11.) 


foot  in  diameter,  vases  seldom  large,  small 
bowls,  and  cups.  The  lustre  is  brighter 
than  the  later  Greek,  and  shines  like  a  true 
glaze.  It  is,  however,  very  thin,  yields  to  a 
hard  point,  has  an  oily  appearance,  polishes 
under  the  hand,  and  seems  to  have  been  a 
varnish  which  penetrated  the  clay,  and 
caused  the  surface  to  bake  much  harder 
than  the  interior.  The  objects  are  all  thick, 
coarse,  and  heavy.  The  paste  is  of  fine  clay, 
dark  slate -colored,  with  occasional  small 
lumps  of  brick-red  intermingled.  The  outer 
part  to  the  depth  of  a  sixteenth  of  an  inch  can  be  split  off  with  the  lus- 
tred  surface,  as  if  put  on  with  it,  but  the  paste  is  uniform  throughout. 
The  red  color  is  good,  but  uneven.  The  black  is  intense  and  bright.  The 
decorations  are  incised  through  the  lustre,  after  the  ware  was  baked,  in 
parallel  lines,  running  in  parallel  zigzags,  or  in  circles  or  rude  patterns. 
Concentric  circles  arc  sometimes  arranged  around  the  object,  united  by 
straight  lines.  These  circles  are  untrue,  rudely  chipped  in  the  lustre,  by 
the  eye.  The  specimens  bear  remarkable  resemblance  to  the  pottery  of 
many  uncivilized  makers.  The  Guatemalans  now  make,  and  the  Peru- 
vians and  others  have  made,  similar  wares.  Put  for  the  lustrous  surface 
they  might  be  regarded  as  specimens  of  the  earliest  art;  and  such  they 


PHENICIA. 


63 


may  be,  the  lustre  being  produced  by  the  use  of  some  sort  of  varnish  be- 
fore baking,  with  a  repetition  of  it  and  polish  after  baking.  The  modern 
Egyptians  produce  red  and  black  pottery  of  the  same  appearance  by  pol- 
ishing. The  substance  which  tills  the  lines  is  a  pure  white.  The  nu- 
merous specimens  of  this  peculiar  ware  were  found  in  one  locality  only, 
in  tombs  at  Alambra,  near  Dali,  and  they  may  be  distinguished  as  Alam- 
bra  pottery,  since  they  have  not  been  found  elsewhere  in  the  East. 


36.  Egypto-Phenician  Vase. 

7.  Red  lustrous  ware  decorated  in  black.  This  class  approaches  the 
Greek  style  of  pottery,  and  seems  to  have  been  the  ware  afterward  chosen 
by  the  Greeks  for  their  best  work.  The  class,  however,  includes  articles 
of  greatly  earlier  periods  than  any  Greek  work.  The  decorations  are 
almost  exclusively  in  circles,  and  the  style  must  be  regarded  as  Phenician. 
Sometimes  a  few  circles  appear  arranged  on  the  sides  of  the  objects; 
sometimes  many  concentric  circles,  and  many  groups  of  concentric  cir- 
cles, always  sharply  drawn.  The  forms  are  various — chiefly  bowls,  vases, 
bottles,  and  cups.  The  surface  is  of  a  clear  uniform  red,  artificially  pro- 
duced;  the  lustre  that  thin  dead  varnish -like  lustre  of  the  later  Greek 
work. 

To  this  class  belong  several  fine  vases,  varying  from  twelve  to  fifteen 


G4 


A  S(  n:y t  potter  y. 


inches  in  height,  one  of  which  is  illustrated  (111.  37),  a  peculiarity  being 

the  ornamental  spout,  a  ewer  held 
by  a  figure  which  on  all  the  speci- 
mens but  one  is  Pheuician.  On 
that  one  the  figure  is  Greek  in  feat- 
ure and  drapery.  On  some  of  these 
the  decoration  is  in  bands  of  black, 
while  on  others  leaves,  etc.,  in  white 
are  added.  The  Greek  figure  on 
one,  and  the  Phenician  figures  on 
all  the  others,  fix  the  period  of  these 
specimens,  which  are  to  be  classed 
as  Graeco-  Phenician  of  the  time 
when  Greek  character  and  taste  had 
modified  Phenician  decoration.  ( >n 
one  vase,  which  from  its  general 
character  is  placed  in  this  class,  is  a 
figure  of  the  sacred  cow  of  Hathor 
painted  in  a  clear  yellow. 

Imitations  of  this  pottery  are 
also  found.  These  are  of  heavier 
pottery,  and  the  red  color,  as  well  as 
the  black  circles,  has  been  painted 
after  the  baking.  In  a  few  cases 
a  dull  vermilion  has  been  used  to 
heighten  the  color  of  an  object  after 
baking.     It  may  be  conjectured  that 

37.  Grseco-Phenician  Vase,  in  red  lustrous  ware.     Slien  specimens   are  late   attempts  to 

(i  lesnola  ( loll. )  n  i  ,i         ,i       n 

imitate  old  wares ;  or  that  the  finer 

quality  of  this  ware  was  an  article  of  luxury  in  Cyprus,  made  by  the  best 

potters  only,  and  that  the  poorer  workmen  made  imitations.      There  is 

much  difference  in  the  quality  and  work  on  the  lustred  specimens,  some 

rising  in   paste  and  fabric  to  full  equality  with  the  Greek  pottery  of  the 

best  times. 

s.  Brick -red  unglazed  coarse  pottery,  with  rude  decoration  in  white 

lime  <»r  clay,  which  is  easily  scraped  off.      The  decorations  are  mere  daubs 

of  white,  but  on  one  vase  which  has  a  spout  an  eye  is  indicated  on  each 

side  of  it.      This  ware    is   found  elsewhere,  and  has   been   regarded  by 

some  as  the  most  archaic  Greek  pottery.     We  are  not  prepared  to  regard 

it  as  of  any  definite  period ;  rather  considering  it  a  lower  class  of  work 


PHENICIA. 


65 


of  potters  in  all  times  from  the  earliest  down  to  late  Roman.  There  is 
nothing  in  the  ware,  either  in  paste,  form,  or  decoration,  which  aids  in 
assigning  dates. 

9.  Cream -colored  nnglazed  pottery  decorated  in  red  only.  These 
objects  are  interesting  as  specimens  of  different  periods.  Some  appear 
to  be  covered  with  a  thin  lus- 
tre. Specimens  are  decorated  in 
cheeks  and  crossing  lines  ;  oth- 
ers in  irregular  perpendicular 
lines  parallel  to  each  other ;  oth- 
ers in  arabescjue  patterns,  which 
become  in  later  specimens  more 
regular,  and  include  carefully 
executed  meander  patterns,  as 
well  as  deer  and  other  animals. 
Bottle -shaped  vases  of  rough 
pottery  have  no  color  except 
around  the  neck,  or  on  the  rim 
at  the  top,  which  is  colored  to  a 
soft  vermilion.  A  few  speci- 
mens are  tinted  red  over  the 
whole  surface,  and  have  rings 
of  deeper  red.  The  class  is  spe- 
cially important  as  showing 
decorations  with  animals,  etc., 
which  are  among  the  illustra-  38-  Phenidan  Yases.  (Cesnok  Coll.) 
tions  of  the  advance  from  symbolic  decoration  to  the  subject  painting  of 
the  Greeks.  Such  specimens  are  of  late  Phenician  and  early  Greek  work. 
Doubtless  potters  of  both  nations  produced  more  or  less  of  these  wares. 
The  pottery  varies,  some  being  coarse  and  thick,  others  well  tooled,  with 
polished  surface. 

10.  Cream-white  pottery,  polished  surface,  decorated  in  a  rich  brown. 
These  are  vases  of  beautiful  shape,  small  bottles  for  oil  and  other  objects. 
The  brown  is  rich,  shading  into  yellow.  The  decoration  is  usually  in 
parallel  bands  and  lines  around  the  object. 

11.  Black  wares  with  fluted  sides.  These  are  remarkable  for  beauty 
of  shape,  mostly  in  wine  and  water  pitchers.  One  noble  vase  is  oviform, 
nearly  two  feet  in  height. 

12.  Red  lustrous  wares  without  decoration.  These  are  probably  of 
Greek  and  Roman  times. 

5 


m 


ANCIENT  POTTERY. 


13.  Greek  painted  vases,  not  Phenician.     Among  the  Kuriuin  treas- 
ures are  several  line  specimens  of  Greek  work,  figures  in  black  on  red. 

14.  Objects  in  terra-cotta,  or  clay  slightly  baked.     The  unglazed  pot- 
teries of  Cyprus  are  of  such   soft  material  in  many  cases,  and  were  so 

slightly  baked  that  it  is  difficult 
to  separate  them  from  the  objects 
properly  called  terra-cotta. 

We  have  not  classified  here  the 
larger  sculptures  in  pottery,  which 
are  of  various  periods.  A  colossal 
Phenician  head  is  of  the  ante-Greek 
period.  Other  life-size  heads  are 
of  Greek  times.  Neither  have 
hundreds  of  lamps  of  the  Roman 
period  been  included. 

There  are  many  exceptional 
specimens,  some  of  the  highest  im- 
portance. A  colossal  vase,  four 
feet  high,  has  a  cover  surmounted 
by  a  small  vase.  The  ground  is 
cream -color.  The  decoration  in 
brown  is  in  narrow  bands,  of  horses, 
goats,  antelopes,  and  animals  possi- 
bly intended  for  deer,  but  certainly 
resembling  the  giraffe.      The  im- 


89.  Colossal  riieniciaii  Head.     (Cesnola  Coll.) 


mense  vase  has  four  handles,  and  is  covered  with  innumerable  pictures 
of  animals,  and  with  decorations  including  checks,  diamonds,  squares,  and 
other  patterns  in  archaic  and  later  styles  of  ornamentation,  including  the 
Meander;  in  short,  nearly  every  form  of  decoration  known  on  Phenician 
pottery.  It  is  colossal  in  size  and  appearance,  Phenician  in  workmanship, 
and  a  noble  specimen  of  archaic  ceramic  art.  It  probably  belongs  to  the 
( iiicco-Phenician  period. 

The  remarkable  fact  must  be  noted  that  the  vast  collection  gives  no 
evidence  that  potters  worked  by  patterns  or  rule.  There  is  no  uniformity 
of  size  to  indicate  an  established  system  of  measures.  Duplicates  in  dec- 
oration are  almost  unknown.  The  Phenician  potter  or  artist  appears 
to  have  followed  his  fancy  in  the  size  and  decoration  of  each  piece  that 
passed  through  his  hands,  and  the  collection  affords  an  invaluable  mass 
of  material  for  studying  the  rise  and  growth  of  original  forms  of  dec- 
oration. 


PHENICIA.  67 


Many  of  the  forms  of  Phenician  pottery  are  ingenious.  Several  small 
vases  standing  on  a  hollow  ring  form  one  vase,  the  liquid  rising  to  the 
same  level  in  each.  Puzzle  vases  of  various  forms,  and  vases  which  fill 
from  small  apertures  in  the  bottom,  are  frequent.  In  the  tombs  of  sol- 
diers, General  Cesnola  found  numerous  pottery  images  of  men  on  horse- 
back. There  are  groups  of  men  engaged  in  various  employments,  knead- 
ing bread,  bathing,  etc.  A  funeral  procession  in  pottery  includes  donkeys 
carrying  baskets,  a  horseman  carrying  vases,  a  chariot  carrying  musicians, 
other  chariots  with  the  family,  and,  closing  the  procession,  a  platform  on 
which  is  a  body  in  the  form  of  an  Egyptian  mummy,  the  face  covered 
with  a  mask  of  the  sacred  cow.  This  is  thoroughly  Egypto- Phenician. 
Children's  toys  are  of  not  uncommon  occurrence.  A  horse  might  be 
thought  to  refer  to  the  story  of  Troy,  if 
it  were  not  more  probable  that  it  ante- 
dates that  history.  A  man's  hand,  the 
fingers  loaded  with  rings  (111.  40),  shows 
the  old  style  of  wearing  them.  Among 
the  objects  found  by  General  Di  Ces- 
nola at  Kurium  were  several  paterae,  or 
plates,  each  having  two  holes  pierced  in 
the  rim  for  a  string  by  which  to  hang 

,    .         ,         .,'...  ,.  40.  Pottery  Hand.     (Cesnola  Coll.) 

it,  and  bowls  with  similar  perforations. 

This   is   a    common    characteristic    of   modern    pottery  in  Italy  and  in 

Holland. 

It  will  be  borne  in  mind  that  although  the  Egyptians  made  enamelled 
pottery,  and  specimens  of  their  enamelled  ware  are  found  in  Cypriote 
tombs,  the  Phenicians  do  not  seem  to  have  made  it,  and  it  rarely  ap- 
pears in  the  ceramic  history  of  ancient  Europe.  The  enamelled  walls  of 
Babylon  and  Assyria  were  built  long  after  the  Phenicians  had  been  in- 
structed by  their  Egyptian  conquerors.  The  art  went  eastward  in  Asia, 
and  we  meet  it  centuries  later  in  China.  It  remained  in  the  western  part 
of  Asia;  or,  having  been  lost,  was  recovered  there  from  the  East  and 
transmitted  to  modern  Europe. 

The  Cypriote  collection  suggests  possible  conclusions  to  which  care- 
ful study  may  lead.  These  are,  substantially,  that  what  has  hitherto  been 
known  as  archaic  Greek  art  must  be  designated  in  Cyprus  as  late  Pheni- 
cian art ;  that  Greek  art  in  that  island  had  no  existence  prior  to  the  eighth 
century  before  Christ,  but  was  born  of  Phenician  parentage  at  about  that 
date;  that  the  Phenicians  in  Cyprus  (and  probably  in  other  localities  yet 
to  be  explored)  were,  next  to  Egypt,  the  most  advanced  race  in  the  arts, 


08  ANCIENT  POTTERY. 


from  1500  to  GOO  b.c.  ;  and  that  Phenician  art,  receiving  the  direct  influ- 
ence of  Egypt,  became  the  parent  of  the  arts,  not  only  in  Greece,  but  in 
Italy,  and  possibly  in  Assyria  and  Babylonia. 


IY.-HOLY    LAND. 

That  the  Hebrews  made  and  used  pottery  is  well  attested  by  their  his- 
torical writers,  and  by  the  frequent  allusions  to  the  potter  and  his  work 
in  Sacred  Scripture.  But  no  artistic  work  seems  to  have  been  produced, 
and  no  specimens  or  fragments  have  been  found,  which  furnish  any  idea 
of  styles  of  decoration  or  favorite  forms.  Solomon  (Pro v.  xxvi.,  23) 
likens  "  burning  lips  and  a  wicked  heart "  to  a  "  potsherd  covered  with 
silver  dross,"  which  may  allude  to  a  broken  crucible,  or  possibly  to  pottery 
covered  with  a  silver  lustre  ;  but  none  such  is  known.  The  potters  are 
spoken  of  as  a  class  among  the  descendants  of  Judah  (1  Chron.  iv.,  23). 
"The  work  of  the  hands  of  the  potter"  was  familiar  to  the  Hebrew,  but 
none  survives  to  be  described. 

Recently  the  discovery  of  considerable  quantities  of  pottery  in  Moab 
has  been  announced,  and  the  vases,  more  or  less  covered  with  inscriptions 
in  high-relief,  have  been  submitted  to  the  examination  of  European  schol- 
ars, who  are  divided  in  opinion  as  to  their  character.  Some  accept  them 
as  genuine  antiquities,  while  others  pronounce  them  modern  forgeries. 


V.-G-REECE. 

The  splendor  of  that  civilization  has  not  been  fully  recognized  which, 
in  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  before  the  Christian  era,  was  illustrated 
in  works  of  art,  the  objects  of  admiration  and  of  rarely  successful  at- 
tempts at  imitation,  in  all  subsequent  ages.  The  art  is  known,  and  its 
position  among  human  arts  acknowledged.  The  grade  of  civilization  is 
less  appreciated.  The  products  of  high  art  are  a  good  measure  of  civil- 
ization. It  does  not  follow,  because,  in  one  or  another  department,  a  na- 
tion's productions  are  inferior,  that  the  nation  is  to  be  regarded  as  bar- 
barous. This  or  that  art  may  have  been  unknown  or  neglected.  A  thou- 
sand years  hence  it  may  well  be  that  arts  now  despised  will  be  cultivated, 
and  arts  now  cultivated  will  be  unknown  or  poorly  practised.  But  the 
nation  whose  literature,  sculpture,  and  vases  are  so  highly  ranked  even  by 
the  standards  of  modern  times,  having  indeed  manners  and  customs  differ- 


GREECE. 


69 


ing  from  ours,  was  a  nation  of  the  highest  place  in  a  civilization  equalling, 
if  not  surpassing,  any  of  later  days. 

The  origrin  and  growth  of  that  civilization  are  little  known.  Enthusi- 
asts  find  in  the  Homeric  poems  the  evidences  of  a  Greek  civilization  co- 
eval with  Solomon,  or  antedating  him; 
but  the  heroes  of  Homer  (whatever  be 
the  date  of  their  creation  in  song)  have 
strange  traits  of  barbarism,  and  the  chiv- 
alry of  the  Iliad  is  of  that  sort  which 
in  the  knightly  passage  at  arms  drops  the 
sword  to  seize  a  stone  and  hurl  it  into  the 
face  of  an  antagonist.  Whatever  view  is 
taken  of  the  period  of  Homer,  or  the  ori- 
gin of  the  books  of  the  Iliad  and  oth- 
er Homeric  poems,  neither  they  nor  any 
other  of  the  fragmentary  remains  of  early 
Greek  song  help  to  much  knowledge  of 
the  origin  or  progress  of  Greek  civiliza- 
tion and  art.  Out  of  a  period  of  obscuri- 
ty, vague  tradition,  myths  of  imaginative 
brains — a  period  inhabited  by  heroes  of 
romance,  possessed  of  such  arts  as  fancy 

had    given    them— the    Greek   civilization    «•  Greek  Amphora.     Figures  in  black  on 
°  red.    Theseus  and  the  Minotaur.    (Trum- 

suddenly  blazes  with  all  the  brilliancy  ot      bull-Prime  Coll.) 
sculpture,  painting,  and  literature.    What 

was  its  origin  ?  Whence  did  it  come  ?  Was  it  a  growth  of  long  centu- 
ries, from  Pelasgic  beginnings,  or  was  it  a  late  result  of  contact  with  other 
nations  possessed  of  arts  and  histories  ?  The  pottery  of  the  Grecian  isl- 
ands may  help  to  answer  these  questions. 

The  origin  of  the  tribes  commonly  designated  as  Greek  was,  of  course, 
Asiatic.  They  had  crossed  from  Asia  to  Europe  at  an  early  period  after 
the  Dispersion,  and  scattered  over  the  country  now  known  as  Greece,  set- 
tling also  in  many  of  the  islands  of  the  Eastern  Mediterranean  and  the 
Archipelago.  While  some  of  them  were  content  to  lead  the  humblest 
lives  on  the  products  of  the  soil  cultivated  by  constant  labor,  others, 
in  course  of  time,  formed  themselves  into  predatory  bands,  roving  from 
place  to  place,  and,  by  their  superior  force  and  training  as  fighting  men, 
were  able  to  compel  a  support  from  the  more  honest  and  simple  husband- 
men. A  community  of  language  was  for  many  centuries  the  only  mark 
of  family  union  among  these  various  tribes.     Without  written  language 


70  ANCIENT  POTTERY. 


the  bond  of  union  was  feeble,  and  the  entire  race  was,  in  effect,  barba- 
rian. The  population  of  Greece  and  the  Greek  isl- 
ands was  at  first  small  and  scattered.  Central  points 
of  importance  grew  to  have  names  as  cities  because 
they  became  the  strongholds  of  the  predatory  tribes. 

None  of  these  appear  to  have  preserved  the  history 
12.  Early  Greek  Kylix.  _.     .      i   y         .    _  _  1 .     .  ,    ,        J 

(Cesnoia  Coll.)  or  anJ  distinct  knowledge  of  their  ancestral  home 

in  Asia  ;  nor  for  many  centuries  did  they  possess 
any  characteristic  arts.  Dim  traditions  existed  of  an  Asiatic  power  com- 
ing to  teach  the  Pelasgic  tribes  the  first  lessons  of  civilization.  Now  and 
then  it  may  have  been  that  strangers  from  Egypt,  like  the  fabled  Cecrops 
and  Danaus,  or  from  Asia  like  Pelops,  came  to  Greece,  but  if  so  they  left 
no  evidences  of  their  influence  which  can  be  traced,  except  the  truth  that 
the  Greek  alphabet  came  from  the  Phenician,  and  possibly  Cadmus  did 
found  the  Boaotian  Thebes.  Certain  tribes,  growing  in  physical  power, 
made  occasional  excursions  into  other  countries  on  the  islands  and  on  the 
Asiatic  coasts,  conquered  and  possessed  cities  which  had  more  or  less  art 
education,  and  thus  learned  abroad  and  brought  back  to  Greece  the  rudi- 
ments of  that  art  which  was  afterward  so  brilliant. 

Emerging  from  barbarism,  and  coming  into  association  with  races  who 
were  possessed  of  ancient  family  histories  and  arts  handed  down  from  re- 
mote ages,  they  desired  a  similar  history  for  themselves.  The  Egyptians, 
the  Hebrews,  the  Assyrians,  and  possibly  the  Phenicians,  had  libraries  of 
written  history  of  their  ancestors.  The  Greeks  had  no  such  literature. 
They  had  only  the  old  recitals  in  song  and  rhythmic  verses  which,  like 
the  Norsemen  and  other  uncivilized  races,  their  men  and  women  and  chil- 
dren had  delighted  to  hear  poured  out  by  wandering  rhapsodists,  who, 
like  the  minstrels  of  later  ages,  varied  their  recitals  and 'added  romantic 
inventions  here  and  there  to  suit  the  tastes  and  secure  the  rewards  of  this 
or  that  tribe.  But  when  it  did  emerge  from  barbarism,  the  Greek  mind 
came,  like  Minerva  from  the  head  of  Jove,  suddenly  full-grown,  with  un- 
exampled intellectual  vigor  and  ability.  Their  historians  created  a  his- 
tory out  of  the  mass  of  tradition.  Events  which  had  actually  occurred 
were  mingled  with  events  the  fiction  of  the  imaginative  Greek  mind  of 
the  earlier  days,  rarely,  if  ever,  equalled  in  old  or  modern  times  for  power 
of  creation  and  poetic  fervor.  The  explorations  of  our  curious,  inquiring, 
investigating  age  have  furnished,  after  the  lapse  of  two  thousand  years, 
abundant  evidence  of  the  fictitious  character  of  many  statements  of 
Greek  historians. 

The  rapid  advance  of  Greek  literature  and  art — due,  perhaps,  as  much 


G  REEVE. 


71 


to  the  possession  of  a  free  and  flexible  language  as  to  the  superiority  of 
Greek  intellectual  power  —  naturally  resulted  in 
a  pride  which  is  abundantly  exemplified  among 
modern  nations.  In  nothing  is  this  pride  more 
frequently  illustrated  than  in  the  claim  of  in- 
ventions in  the  arts.  No  great  invention  in 
modern  times  has  escaped  the  conflicting  claims 
of  various  nations.  So  the  Greeks,  when  they 
possessed  literature  and  arts,  began  to  claim  the 
invention  of  both.  When  they  had  established 
the  personality  of  their  ancient  authors,  various 
autonomous  cities  disputed  among  themselves 
the  honor  of  having  given  them  birth.  When 
they  began  to  believe  in  their  own  claims  to 
original  inventions,  different  tribes  asserted  pri- 
ority of  right  to  the  discoveries.  In  a  later  pe- 
riod, when  Greece  had  formed  relations  with,  43  Eumenides.  (From  a  Greek 
and  knowledge  of,  other  nations,  intelligent  men  vase.) 

of  course  understood  the  character  of  the  claims  made  by  their  ancestors. 
Bat  modern  students  have  not  always  recognized  the  origin  of  these 
claims,  and  hence  a  frequent  assignment  to  the  Greeks  of  the.  invention 
of  arts  which  they  only  learned  at  a  late  period  from  others,  and  conse- 
quent error  in  giving  to  Greek  art  a  greater  age  than  can,  with  evidence, 
be  affirmed  of  it. 

Thus  the  Greeks  claimed  the  invention  of  letters,  although  other  parts 
of  the  world  had  libraries  and  abundant  literature  centuries  before  the 
Greeks  possessed  an  alphabet.  They  claimed  the  invention  of  finger- 
rings,  although  finger -rings  had  been  the  ornaments  of  Assyrian  and 
Asiatic  fingers  perhaps  from  the  days  of  Tubal-Cain,  before  the  Deluge, 
and  abounded  in  Phenieia  and  in  Egypt,  in  gold  and  in  pottery,  from  the 
earliest  times.  Samos  claimed  for  Greek  artists  in  bronze,  about  650  B.C., 
the  invention  of  images  in  pottery.  But  Corinth  disputed  the  claim,  re- 
lating the  story  that  the  Corinthian  potter  Dibutades  had  a  daughter  who 
sketched  her  lover's  profile  from  its  shadow  on  the  wall,  and  the  father 
conceived  the  idea  of  filling  it  up  with  clay  and  so  making  the  first  pot- 
tery portrait.  But  long  before  Dibutades  was  born  or  Corinth  had  be- 
come the  local  refuge  of  a  roving  band  of  Greeks,  Phenieia  had  been 
making  great  and  small  images  of  pottery ;  and  for  a  thousand  years 
Egypt  had  produced  figures  of  gods,  men,  and  animals,  in  uuglazed  pot- 
tery, or  adorned  with  exquisite  enamel. 


72  ANCIENT  POTTERY 


While  the  remains  of  archaic  Greek  pottery  have  offered  some  help 
in  conjecturing  the  truth  with  regard  to  early  Greek  history,  these  have 
hitherto  been  so  few,  the  places  of  discovery  and  the  classes  so  discon- 
nected, and  their  periods  so  uncertain,  that  scarcely  more  light  was  af- 
forded by  them  to  read  Greek  history  than  that  history  shed  on  the  pot- 
teries. Hence  the  value  of  the  Cypriote  discoveries  which  have  been  de- 
scribed. 

Settled  by  Phenicians,  for  ages  the  seat  of  Phenician  civilization  and 
arts,  receiving  Greek  colonies  who  conquered  and  possessed  cities,  and 
formed  petty  Greek  powers,  each  independent,  in 
close  proximity  to  and  constant  intercourse  with 
Phenician  cities  also  independent,  Cyprus  probably 
well  illustrates  the  history  of  the  Greeks  on  other 
44.  Early  Greek  Kyiix.  islands  and  on  the  Ionian  coast ;  exhibiting  the  con- 
(Cesnoia  Coll.)  tact  0f  t]ie  Q-reek  mj1Kl  with  old  art  and  the  mar- 

vellous rapidity  with  which  it  seized  upon  it,  stamped  it  with  Greek 
character,  and  transformed  it  into  the  magnificence  which  all  ages  have 
accepted  as  the  highest  object  of  art  attainment. 

While  Cyprus  thus  affords  material  for  the  history  of  Greek  civiliza- 
tion, it  also  affords  now,  for  the  first  time,  a  consecutive  history  of  early 
Greek  ceramic  art.  The  order  of  the  illustrations  has  been  indicated  in 
the  previous  pages:  1,  the  Phenician;  2,  the  Egypto-Phenician ;  3,  the 
Graeco-Phenician ;  4,  the  pure  Greek. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  repeat  here  the  characteristics  of  Phenician  pot- 
tery. To  study  intelligently  the  effect  of  the  Greek  mind  upon  it,  and 
the  development  of  Greek  art  out  of  it,  it  would  be  well  to  consider  it 
in  two  classes — the  one  including  form,  especially  statuary,  the  other 
including  decoration  by  painting. 

In  the  very  long  series  of  pottery  images  in  the  Cesnola  collection 
it  is  easy  to  divide  those  with  Phenician  indications  of  dress  and  feature 
from  those  with  Greek  characteristics.  It  is  also  easy  to  place  the  entire 
series  in  order  of  comparative  art  merit,  beginning  with  the  rudest  imi- 
tations of  the  human  form,  having  Phenician  types  of  countenance,  made 
by  Phenician  workmen,  or  of  animals  whose  families  are  indicated  only 
by  some  one  prominent  feature,  and  ending  with  exquisite  statuettes, 
the  work  of  the  ablest  Greek  artists  of  the  best  period.  But  it  is  more 
than  difficult — it  is  impossible — to  say  exactly  where  the  Phenician  art 
ends  and  the  Greek  begins.  The  two  were  synchronous  in  the  sixth 
and  seventh  centuries  before  Christ.  Even  the  discovery  of  articles  in 
a  Phenician   or  a  Greek   tomb  is  not  evidence   of  the  nationalitv  of  the 


GREECE.  73 

maker,  when  the  two  peoples  were  neighbors,  and  their  arts  were  assimi- 
lating. Doubtless  the  works  of  both  ran  closely  together  in  character, 
each  copying  the  other.  But  the  Greeks  were  always  in  the  lead,  and 
their  triumph  was  complete.  Phenician  art  in  pottery,  having  lasted  a 
thousand  years  without  improvement  until  modified  by  the  coming-in 
of  Greek  intellect  and  progressive  ideas,  ceased  utterly,  while  the  Greek 
survived  for  all  time. 

In  the  decoration  of  vases  the  distinction  is  more  clearly  marked,  and 
the  presence  of  a  new  intellect  is  visible  from  the  beginning  of  Greek 
work.  The  Grseco-Phenician  styles  are  quite  distinct  from  the  Egypto- 
Phenician  and  the  Phenician,  although  founded  on  them  at  the  first.  Out 
of  the  rude  checker  and  diamond  ornamentations 
the  Greeks  extracted  various  combinations  of  lines 
for  friezes  and  decorative  borders.  Out  of  the  sys- 
tems of  circles  overlapping  each  other  and  crossed 
by  straight  lines,  the  Greek  eye  selected  and  im- 
proved a  variety  of  bead,  drop,  and  scroll  patterns, 
which  always  remained  favorites  on  Greek  vases. 
The  lines  of  the  rigid  lotus-flower  were  resolved 
into  separate  patterns,  recombined  in  conventional 
forms  of  exceeding  gracefulness,  without  symbolic 
meaning,  and  used  solely  as  ornamental  devices 
pleasing  to  the  eye.  Other  leaves  and  flowers  first 
copied  from  nature,  afterward  conventionalized,  ar- 
ranged as  wreaths  or  border  patterns,  indicate  a  45.  Greek  Vase.  Fine  style: 
new   spirit    in    the    arts    of   ornamentation.       The  red  on  black* 

whole  system  of  decoration  ■  in  symbolism  was  abolished,  and  the  new 
system  of  decoration  to  please  the  eye  was  introduced.  All  this  preceded 
the  great  achievement  and  glory  of  Greek  decoration,  the  painting  of 
story  on  vases. 

The  style  of  decorated  vases  which  has  been  heretofore  regarded  as 
the  earliest  distinctively  Greek  has  been  variously  called  Doric,  Corin- 
thian, Carthaginian,  and  Egyptian.  This  variation  of  name  indicates  the 
hitherto  puzzling  character  of  the  decoration,  which  consisted  in  rows  of 
animals — panthers,  lions,  goats,  deer,  and  birds — usually  arranged  in  friezes 
around  the  vase,  while  flowers  are  strewed  over  the  field.  (See  111.  46.) 
Specimens  of  this  class  have  been  found  in  various  Greek  localities. 
Many  have  been  discovered  at  Corinth.  In  the  Trumbull-Prime  collec- 
tion are  a  number  of  specimens  found  in  Southern  Italy.  As  bearing  on 
the  question  whether  the  art  history  in  Cyprus  is  fairly  illustrative  of 


ANCIENT  POTTERY. 


early  Greek  art  history  elsewhere,  this  style  of  decorated  pottery  is  inter- 
esting.    Brought  under  view  with  an  immense  number  of  the  vases  in 

the  Cesnola  collection,  it  takes  its  place 
at  once  as  an  advanced  Egypto-Pheni- 
cian  style.  But  none  of  this  pottery 
has  been  found  in  Cyprus  except  a 
single  small  aryballos,  which  was  in  the 
Kurium  temple  vaults.  Nevertheless, 
its  relation  to  the  Egypto  -  Phenician  is 
not  subject  to  doubt.  The  ware  is  dif- 
ferent from  any  of  the  Cypriote  works. 

^\\\UUl[  WWII////       ^  *s  neav7>  thick,  cream -color  or  cold 

^wwimili kkiUiii/^  gray  on  the  surface,  with  decorations  in 

tB   n     ,  v      uri   .  ,,  c"  ,      m-,^\    black,  white,  and   maroon   or  red,  the 

46.  Greek  Vase,  "Doric     Style.     (Birch.)  '  '  ' 

details  of  birds  and  animals,  such  as 
limbs,  muscles,  feathers,  etc.,  incised  in  the  paste  through  the  color.  Some 
specimens  appear  to  have  the  thin  lustrous  glaze;  but  this  may  be  the 
result  of  high  polish.  The  animals  have  always  a  remarkably  stiff,  im- 
movable look,  which  is  thoroughly  characteristic.  But  the  Egypto-Phe- 
nician  decorations  of  Cyprus  are  here  :  animals  arranged  in  rows,  the 
colors,  the  black  and  red  bands  around  objects,  the  lotus  -  flowers,  the 
large  birds.  On  three  vases  in  our  collection  are  soldiers,  almost  hid- 
den by  their  shields.  The  same  design  is  on  the  single  specimen  found 
at  Kurium,  and  the  same  also  occurs  engraved  on  a  gold  ring  which  was 
among  the  treasures  of  that  temple.  On  one  vase  in  our  collection  is  a 
winged  shield,  on  the  shield  an  asp.  On  others,  the  same  large  bird  ap- 
pears which  is  so  frequent  on  Cypriote  pottery.  These  vases  occupy, 
therefore,  a  position  in  art  between  the  best  decoration  of  the  Pheni- 
cians  and  the  earliest  of  the  pure  Greek.  They  are  of  the  transition 
period.  Although  not  made  in  Cyprus,  they  show  knowledge  and  edu- 
cation  proceeding  from  acquaintance  with  either  the  arts  of  Cyprus  or 
kindred  arts  of  Phenicians  in  other  localities.  There  is  every  proba- 
bility that  explorations  in  other  Phenician  countries  will  bring  to  light 
other  local  series  of  the  Egypto-Phenician  predecessors  of  this  style  of 
Greek  art.  It  may  be  regarded  as  reasonably  certain  that  this  class  of 
vases  illustrates  the  first  great  improvements  made  by  the  Greek  mind 
on  the  decorative  styles  of  their  predecessors.  But  the  style  was  far  from 
satisfactory  to  the  progressive  intellect  and  taste  of  the  Greeks,  and  was 
soon  abandoned.  It  is  possible  that  in  the  later  periods  of  skilled  Greek 
art  this  archaic  style  of  work  was  reproduced  for  lovers  of  the  antique. 


GREECE. 


75 


The  step  which  was  next  taken  by  the  Greeks  was  a  gigantic  stride. 
They  had  introduced  into  the  ceramic  art  the  idea  of  decoration  for 
beauty,  and  discarded  the  old  prevailing  notion  of  using  it  for  religious 
symbolism.  Now  came  the  idea  of  illustrating  story.  In  our  age  of  pict- 
ures and  illustrated  books,  it  seems  a  simple  idea.  So  is  writing,  print- 
ing; so  is  a  magnetic  telegraph.  But  the  beginnings  of  invention  are 
mure  marvellous  than  their  progressions  from  step  to  step.  The  first 
invention  of  a  sign  to  express  to  the  eye  the  sound  of  the  voice  was  a 
greater  invention  than  the  printing-press.  The  first  rude  picture  which 
told  in  silence  a  complete  story  was  a  more  marvellous  work  than  Kaul- 
bach's  frescoes  in  Berlin. 

Was  this  new  use  of  art  a  Greek  invention  ?  Egypt  had  practised  it 
two  thousand  years.  The  Egyptian  hieroglyphic  writing,  in  its  system  of 
determinatives  (an  occasional  picture  to  explain  the  definite  meaning  of 
the  preceding  signs),  contained  the  very  essence  of  the  art  of  illustration. 
There  is  no  evidence  that  the  Greeks  derived  this  idea  from  Egypt.  It 
may  have  been  an  original  Greek  conception.  They  claimed  it  as  such, 
but  did  not  date  the  discovery  in  very  remote  times.  Homer  says  noth- 
ing of  painting  at  the  time  of  the  siege  of  Troy.  The  Greeks  ascribed 
the  beginning  of  the  art  among  them  to  the  island  of  Sicyon,  where  out- 
lines were  made ;  but  the  custom  of  fill- 
ing up  the  outlines  with  color  they  re- 
garded as  later. 

Paintings  are  mentioned  at  Phocsea  in 
544  b.c.  Cimon  of  Cleonse  is  the  earliest 
Greek  painter  mentioned.  His  date  is  un- 
certain, but  probably  between  550  and  500 
b.c.  To  Polygnotus,  a  contemporary  of 
the  sculptor  Phidias,  about  450  b.c,  was 
ascribed  the  first  great  improvement  in 
the  art  from  the  archaic  stiffness,  and  he 
was  said  to  have  been  the  first  to  paint 
the  open  mouth  showing  teeth.  We  shall 
see  very  soon  that  a  century  before  Polyg- 
notus a  lion  was  painted  by  an  unknown 
artist  with  open  mouth  and  white  teeth. 

The  Phenieians  had  not  painted  subjects 

,n       ».  ,i  ii  •    ,  .      >.  47.  Greek  Amphora,  Medea, 

until    after   they  had    come    into  contact  r 

with  the  Greeks.      Phenician  vases   with   chariot   scenes,  with   animals 

browsing,  and  other  representations  of  action,  are  to  be  classed  as  of  the 


76  AXCIEXT  POTTERY. 


Gncco-Phenician  period.  Egyptian  subject  painting  on  vases  had  been 
confined  to  a  few  rude  outlines,  chiefly  of  funereal  or  mythological  scenes 
of  the  character  in  the  illustration  ({))  on  page  36. 

Wherever  the  Greeks  found  this  idea,  they  now  began  for  all  subse- 
quent ages  the  custom  of  telling  stories,  recording  history,  perpetuating 
mythology  in  pictures.  Henceforth  the  glory  of  Greek  romance  in  song 
is  to  be  illustrated  with  abundant  paintings.  For  the  purposes  of  this 
art  they  found  that  kind  of  pottery  best  suited  to  their  ideas  which  the 
Phenicians  had  long  produced  in  brick-red  color,  decorated  with  circles 
and  bands  in  black,  and  covered,  with  their  lustrous  glaze,  which  has  been 
described  among  Phenician  potteries  as  Class  7.  They  varied  it  by  giving 
the  surface  sometimes  an  artificial  buff  or  yellowish-red  color. 

Among  the  objects  found  by  General  Cesnola  in  the  treasure-vaults 
of  the  Temple  of  Kurium  is  a  single  vase  of  the  new  class  now  under  con- 
sideration, which,  for  various  reasons,  may  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  ear- 
liest Greek  works  of  the  kind.  This  vase — a  hydria — is  of  the  red  lus- 
trous ware.  The  neck,  foot,  and  one  half  of  the  body  are  painted  black. 
On  the  half  of  the  vase  remaining  red  are  two  decorations :  above,  two 
lions  facing  each  other,  painted  in  black  with  maroon  necks  and  heads  and 
touches  of  white,  the  mouths  open,  with  white  teeth.  These  are  in  pre- 
cisely the  same  style  of  drawing  and  execution  with  the  animals  on  the 
earlier  vases  in  the  style  known  as  Doric.  Below  is  a  picture  of  Hercules 
contending  with  a  lion,  in  the  same  style  and  colors.  An  eagle  is  above 
the  hero,  another  above  the  lion.  A  simple  border,  formed  of  heart- 
shaped  leaves  in  black,  is  on  each  side  of  the  red  ground.  The  muscles 
and  details  of  the  figures  are  indicated  by  lines  scratched  in  the  surface 
after  baking.  The  bright-red  paint  of  the  Phenicians  is  here  changed  to 
a  dull  maroon.  Inscriptions  in  black  are  numerous,  but  not  clearly  legi- 
ble, though  some  letters  are  perfect.  These  suggest  possible  allusions 
to  various  events  in  the  life  of  Hercules,  but  they  are  not  intelligible. 
Over  the  hero  his  name  is  legible,  one  letter  missing. 

The  inscriptions  are  separate  words,  over  the  lion,  and  here  and  there 
around  the  scene.  The  letters  are  not  always  legible,  nor  are  they  all 
Greek.  The  following  are  only  remote  approximations  to  some  of  them, 
and  the  characters  are  not  fac-similes.  Thus  the  character  "|  may  be  a 
Greek  Pi,  and  others  may  be  Phenician.  We  give  them  only  as  gener- 
ally descriptive,  and  not  as  accurate  interpretations: 

IV*3V  SOllAM  S3V03V  S3VAd3H 

«**IVI  NFId  +  l         XIASSA  +  I+  VS3N 


GREECE. 


77 


The  style  of  painting  animals  on  this  vase  bears  such  close  resem- 
blance to  the  so-called  Doric  decorations  that  no  doubt  can  exist  of  its 
close  relation  to  that  class.  It  is  an  early  specimen  of  the  new  style  of 
Greek  art,  which  soon  after  this  dropped  the  ancient  style  of  painting 
animals.  The  teeth  of  the  lion  are  white,  and  white  has  been  used  in  the 
other  decorations,  but  is  not  under  the  lustre,  nor  apparently  fixed  by  the 
baking,  as  it  easily  rubs  off. 

With  this  vase,  in  the  Kurium  vaults,  were  found  several  kylikes  and 
a  large  bowl,  in  the  more  advanced  style  of  painting  subjects  in  black 
on  red,  evidently  the  work  of  more  skilful  artists  in  a  somewhat  later 
period.  If,  as  is  supposed,  the  date  of  the  destruction  of  this  temple  was 
about  550  b.c,  these  vases  are  highly  important  as  establishing  the  fact 
in  Greek  art  history  that  the  decoration  of  vases  with  subjects  in  black 
on  red  had  advanced  to  a  high  degree  of  perfection  in  the  middle  of  the 
sixth  century  before  Christ. 

Thus  much  of  the  history  of  Greek  art  as  illustrated  by  the  potteries 
of  Cyprus.  From  the  date  of  the  first  painting  of  subjects,  the  advance 
of  the  art  was  steadfast  until  its  culmination  in  the  productions  of  the 
fourth  century  before  Christ — the  Golden  Age  of  Grecian  civilization. 

The  customary  classification  of  Greek  painted  vases  is  in  five  divisions: 

1.  The  earliest  style,  heretofore  de- 
scribed, known  as  Doric,  etc.,  of  which  the 
type  is  the  representation  of  animals  and 
flowers,  usually  in  friezes  or  bands  on 
cream-colored  or  gray  pottery  (111.  46). 

2.  Vases  of  red  lustrous  pottery  on  which 
the  figures  are  painted  in  black  (111.  41). 

3.  Vases  of  the  same  pottery  on  which 
the  backgrounds  are  black,  the  figures  being 
in  the  red  or  yellow  of  the  pottery. 

4.  Vases  of  the  same  general  style  with 
the  last,  decorated  in  florid  style,  with  ara- 
besque and  other  ornamentations,  often  in- 
troducing Eros  (Cupid),  and  sometimes  gild- 
ing. 

5.  Vases  with  white  surfaces,  painted 
with  figures,  sometimes   in    outline,  some- 

,.  .  ,        ,  48.  Dionvsus.     (From  a  Greek  vase.) 

times  in  several  colors. 

Besides  these  styles,  others  were  occasionally  used.     Vases  ornamented 

by  flutings ;  with  moulded  reliefs ;  decorated  in  black  only  ;  in  opaque 


78  ANCIENT  POTTERY. 


white  on  black ;  in  pale-yellow  and  brown  with  white  on  black ;  vases  in 
the  forms  of  animals,  birds,  human  heads ;  in  short,  an  innumerable  variety 
were  produced.  The  live  principal  styles,  however,  were  vastly  more  com- 
mon than  any  other.  The  red  color  varies  to  a  yellowish  shade.  Both 
were  artificially  produced,  heightening  by  an  earth  or  pigment  the  natural 
color  of  the  clay.  The  black  was  applied  as  a  thick  paint,  sometimes 
burning  to  a  greenish  shade,  and  occasionally  to  a  metallic  iridescence. 
The  details  in  subjects  painted  in  black — features,  muscles,  lines  of  dress, 
feathers,  etc. — were  incised  through  the  paint.  White  was  used  for  female 
faces,  and  on  parts  of  armor  and  dress,  and  maroon  was  sparingly  em- 
ployed in  parts  of  the  designs.  The  vases  were  usually  painted  black, 
leaving  open  spaces  of  the  red  on  which  the  paintings  were  placed. 

The  best  period  was  reached  when  the  figures  were  executed  in  red, 
with  the  details  pencilled  in  black.  The  advance  of  art  is  visible  in  these. 
The  earlier  are  stiff  and  hard ;  the  later  free,  artistic,  the  countenances  for 
the  first  time  having  expression  and  variety,  figures  and  costume  possess- 
ing grace  and  delicacy.  The  ornamentations  on  the  necks  and  smaller 
parts  of  objects  included  a  great  number  of  patterns,  sometimes  used 
purely  as  suitable  and  beautiful,  sometimes  in  reference  to  the  subject 
painted.  Accessories  were  occasionally  introduced  as  explanatory  —  a 
bird  to  signify  that  the  scene  wras  in  the  air,  a  fish  to  indicate  a  marine 
subject,  etc.  The  "fine  style,"  so  called,  was  characterized  by  the  perfec- 
tion of  the  drawing,  the  figures  being  in  red,  the  ornaments  and  inscrip- 
tions in  white.  "All  that  is  known,"  says  Mr.  Birch,  "of  the  style  of 
painting  of  Polygnotus,  Parrhasius,  and  Zeuxis  may  be  traced  in  the  de- 
signs of  these  vases ;  while  the  later  ones,  in  the  isolation  of  the  figures 
upon  larger  plain  surfaces  and  the  elongation  of  forms,  approach  the 
known  canon  of  Lysippus,  and  blend  into  the  immediately  subsequent 
style,  which  just  preceded  the  final  decadence  of  the  art  of  painting 
vases."  This  subsequent  style  was  the  florid,  in  which  ornament  is  in- 
creased to  lavishness,  the  figures  are  more  full  and  round,  polychrome 
decorations  are  introduced,  and  a  general  luxury  of  art  without  simplicity 
characterizes  the  vases. 

The  illustrations  will  give  some  idea  of  the  styles  of  delineation  in  the 
best  periods.  "  The  Last  Night  of  Troy  "  (111.  49,  reproduced  from  Mr. 
Birch)  is  an  extract  from  a  painting  on  a  vase  in  the  museum  at  Naples, 
in  which  many  events  in  that  scene  are  depicted  with  great  power. 

The  first  style  has  been  dated  as  prior  to  500  B.C. ;  the  second  from 
500  to  400  B.C.;  the  third,  regarded  as  including  the  finest  style,  from 
400  to  250  b.c.  ;  the  fourth  from  300  b.c.  to  the  decadence  in  the  second 


GREECE. 


79 


century.  The  fifth  style  was  probably  of  the  same  periods  with  the  third 
and  fourth.     The  second  was  probably  used  throughout  all  the  periods. 

The  union  of  the  two  colors  in  pottery,  black  and  red,  fully  satisfied 
the  Greek  lover  of  the  beautiful,  and  these  are  the  colors  of  much  of  the 
best  Greek  pottery,  in  no  way  relieved  as  to  general  effect  by  the  slight 
use  of  dull  maroon  and  white.  Rare  specimens  have  figures  in  white  on 
black  grounds,  and  some  have  polychrome  decorations. 

There  is  no  disputing  about  tastes.  The  Greek  was  no  less  a  man 
of  taste  than  the  American,  though  he  preferred  to  drink  wine  at  feasts 
from  a  black  earthen  kylix  decorated  in  red,  or  a  red  cup  with  paintings 


utuH^MWMWH"NIWl»l"M»i^mwm»Nl'JN^I^l'^M 


49.  The  Last  Night  of  Troy.     Cassandra  seized  by  Ajax  at  the  Palladium.     (From  a  vase  at 

Naples:  Birch.) 

in  black.  He  had  glass,  and  plenty  of  thin  and  beautiful  glass,  in  cups 
and  goblets  of  varied  form.  lie  had  wine  equal  to  the  best  of  the  Cote 
d'Or  or  the  Rhine  banks.  At  his  feasts  poets,  soldiers,  statesmen  gath- 
ered ;  jewels  adorned  their  arms  and  fingers,  rich  garments  made  the 
assemblies  gorgeous,  flowers  filled  the  halls  with  perfume ;  statues  of 
snowy  marble,  the  works  of  artists  whose  fame  is  enduring,  paintings  by 
Zeuxis  and  Apelles,  looked  down  on  the  scene.  All  that  the  most  refined 
civilization  could  invent  surrounded  him.  We  are  but  poor  and  far-off 
imitators  of  the  luxury  and  splendor  of  that  civilization,  and  we  have 
small  claim  to  set  up  standards  of  beauty  by  which  to  measure  it.  One  of 
the  most  important  lessons  of  art,  to  be  learned  from  this  fact  in  Greek 


SI) 


ANCIENT  POTTERY. 


ceramic  history,  is  that  all  standards  of  beauty  in  color  as  in  everything 
else  are  arbitrary.     The  time  may  and  probably  will  come  in  the  future 

when  another  civilization  will  look  with  wonder 
at  our  standards  in  music,  painting,  clothing,  col- 
or, at  our  tastes  in  many  arts,  and  regard  them 
as  more  inexplicable  than  we  now  regard  the 
Greek  taste  in  using  black  and  red  for  the  col- 
ors of  gayety  and  splendor. 

The  subjects  on  Greek  vases  are  of  vast  vari- 
ety, almost  as  great  as  the  number  of  specimens 
now  in  the  museums  of  the  world.  This  num- 
ber was  estimated  by  De  "Witte  at  fifty  thousand, 
but  Dr.  Birch  places  it  at  twenty  thousand  of 

vases  of  all  kinds. 
5<  ..Calypso.  (From  a  Greek  vase.)  Thege    gubject8    are   chiefly   0f   four  c]asses  . 

1.  Relating  to  mythology ;  2.  Relating  to  the  Heroic  Age  and  traditions 
of  early  Greek  history  ;  3.  Relating  to  known  history  ;  4.  Relating  to  con- 
temporary manners  and  customs.  Among  the  vast  number  belonging  to 
the  first  and  second  classes  are  not  only  numerous  pictures  which  are  rec- 
ognized from  knowledge  of  the  mythology,  poetry,  and  traditions  of  the 
Greeks,  but  also  many  which  are  unexplained  by  any  extant  literature. 
The  songs  of  many  ancient  poets  are  lost,  while  the  illustrations  of  their 
songs  remain  on  pottery  vases. 

A  study  of  Greek  vases  can  be  made  intelligently  only  as  accompanied 
by  a  study  of  Greek  history  and  literature,  and  an  appreciation  in  some 
sort  of  the  Greek  mind.  The  chief  bond  of  the  various  Greek  tribes  was 
their  common  language,  not  identical,  but  sufficiently  alike  in  different 
families  to  sustain  intercourse.  The  epics  of  Homer  and  the  Cyclic  poets 
had  been  recited  among  the  Grecian  families  before  written  language 
was  generally  known  among  them,  and  thus  arose  a  community  of  tradi- 
tions relating  to  the  Heroic  Age,  which  was  another  bond.  The  Olym- 
piads date  from  776  B.C.,  when  Lycurgus  and  Iphitus  established,  or  re- 
vived, the  Olympian  games.  The  various  cities  of  Greece  remained  in- 
dependent, but  the  "Iliad"'  and  "  Odyssey  "  were  the  common  property 
of  all  Greeks,  and  were  as  familiar  in  the  seventh  century  before  Christ 
to  the  uneducated  tribes  of  Greece  as  the  Bible  is  to  modern  Christians. 
It  was  not  till  about  530  B.C.  that  the  books  of  Homer  were  rescued  from 
confusion,  and  arranged.  Other  epics  were  popular,  abounding  in  roman- 
tic story.  All  these  were  handed  down  from  lip  to  lip  and  generation 
to  generation  long  before  they  were  committed  to  writing.     Men  boasted 


GREECE. 


81 


of  their  ability  to  repeat  them  from  beginning  to  end.  When  painting 
became  an  art  known  to  the  Greeks,  they  used  it  to  illustrate  the  stories 
with  which  every  Greek  household  was  familiar.  Hence  the  thousands 
of  vases  now  known,  and  countless  thousands  more,  on  which  the  paint- 
ings represent  the  stories  of  heroes,  demi-gods,  and  gods,  from  poems 
which  were  the  delight  of  every  Greek. 

Varying  these  designs  Ave  re  a  few,  but  very  few,  representations  of 
known  history,  and  many  of  contemporary  life,  from  which  we  derive  a 
great  amount  of  information  of  Greek  customs. 

Artists'  and  potters'  names  occur  frequently  on  Greek  pottery,  some- 
times the  artist  and  potter  being 
the  same.  On  a  superb  vase  in  the 
Campana  collection,  with  the  sub- 
ject Hercules  and  Nereus,  are  the 
words  TIMATOPAS  EI10IE2EN. 
One  other  vase  is  known  by  Ti- 
magoras.  Nikosthenes  was  a  potter 
whose  name  has  been  found  on  fifty 
vases,  which  present  also  peculiari- 
ties of  work,  such  as  tall  and  slen- 
der forms  of  amphorae,  with  broad 
flat  handles.  Panphaios,  or  Pantha- 
ios,  made  drinking -cups  (kylikes). 
Seventeen  are  known  with  his  sig- 
nature. Artists  also  signed  their 
work,  and  it  is  probable  that  some 
were  famous  and  their  paintings 
much  sought.  The  same  artists 
worked  for  various  potters,  and 
their  names  are  found  together. 
Epiktetos,  a  famous  early  painter 
of  red  figures,  worked  for  many 
potters  whose  names  are  found 
with  his  on  vases.  Klitias  painted 
one  of  the  most  renowned  vases 
known  —  that  styled  the  Francois 
vase — in  black  figures,  representing 
a  considerable  portion  of  the  his- 
tory of  Hercules.  Exekias  was  an 
early  potter  and  artist,  by  whom  many  specimens  are  known.     The  pride 

6 


51.  Panathenaic  Amphora:  Inscription,  TON 
A9ENE9EN  AOAON.     (Louvre.) 


82 


ANCIENT  POTTERY. 


of  the  putter  and  of  the  artist  is  often  illustrated  by  the  personification  of 
the  vase  in  the  signature,  which  says,  "Exekias  made  and  painted  me;" 
"Chares  painted  me;"  " Tlenpolemos  made  me;"  "Ergotimos  made  me; 
Klitias  painted  me.'' 


52.  Bellerophon  and  the  Chimaera.     (From  the  terra-cotta  in  the  British  Museum.) 

The  forms  in  which  the  Greeks  made  pottery  were  many.  It  is  not 
always  possible  to  determine  the  precise  form  indicated  by  the  name  of 
a  vase  or  cup  found  in  Greek  literature,  but  the  accompanying  illustration 
(53)  will  show  the  greater  portion  of  known  forms,  others  not  illustrated 
being  usually  variations  of  one  or  the  other  of  these.  The  list  of  names 
which  follows  is  founded  on  the  best  authorities  among  modern  scholars. 


VASES    ILLUSTRATED    ON    OPPOSITE    PAGE. 

( I  hily  forms,  ami  not  comparative  sizes,  are  Indicated  by  tin-  ruts.) 


1. 

Egyptian  Amphora. 

15. 

Stamnos. 

29,  32. 

Seyphos. 

•J 

Tyrrhenian  Amphora. 

16. 

Krater. 

:;:;. 

(tlpe. 

:;,  6. 

Forms    of   Panathenaic 

17. 

Oxybaphon. 

34. 

Kotyliskos. 

Amphorae. 

18. 

Stamnos  of 

Apulia. 

35,  36. 

Lekythos. 

4. 

Bacchic  Amphora. 

19. 

Kelebe. 

37. 

Oinoehoe. 

5,  7.  8. 

Forms  of  Amphora. 

20. 

Lepaste. 

38,  39,  42. 

Prochoos. 

9,  10. 

Krater,  with  volute  han- 

21. 

Lekane. 

40. 

Bpichysis. 

dles. 

22 

Kylix. 

11,  43. 

Rhyton. 

11. 

Thymiaterion. 

2:;. 

Karchesion. 

44,  45. 

Ascos. 

12. 

Hydria. 

21,  30,  ::i 

Kantharos. 

46. 

Bombylios. 

LS. 

Kalpis. 

25,  2i',. 

Kyathos. 

47,  48. 

Alabastros 

11. 

Pelike. 

27,  28. 

Holmos. 

49,  50. 

Aryballos. 

32 


^7 


'€' 


38     39        40 
35      3G      37      ^  ^ 


<a     d 


i 


«S>       40       47       48 


53.  Forms  of  Vases.     (From  Westropp's  "Hand-book  of  Archaeology.") 


84 


ASCIEST   POTTER V. 


Inscriptions  on  Greek  pottery  are  numerous,  both  painted  and  incised. 
Oftentimes  each  figure  in  a  painted  subject  has  the  name  near  or  on  it. 
Abbreviated  forms  of  spelling  are  common  in  these;  letters  are  omitted; 
where  double  letters  occur,  one  only  is  used.  The  names  of  men  are 
sometimes  accompanied  with  adjectives,  as  "The  beautiful  Hector,"  and 
occasionally  inscriptions  represent  what  the  person  is  supposed  to  be  say- 
ing. Thus  Silenus  says,  "The  wine  is  sweet;"  a  man  lighting  a  funeral 
pyre  says,  "  Farewell;"  a  boy  playing  ball  says,  "Send  me  the  ball."  On 
cups  "Hail  to  von.  and  drink  well!"  is  a  not  uncommon  legend.  The 
prize  vases  of  the  Athenian  games  were  inscribed,  "  I  am  a  prize  from 
Athens"  (111.  51).  Names  of  persons  with  the  epithet  "beautiful"  are  of 
frequent  occurrence,  often"  of  boys  and  females.  Thus  vases  have  "Do- 
rotheos  the  boy  is  beautiful,  the  boy  is  beautiful;"  "Stroibos  is  beauti- 
ful ;"  "  The  beautiful  Nikodemos  ;"  "  Oinanthe  is  beautiful;"  and  one  vase 
has  "  Beautiful  is  Nikolaos;  Dorotheos  is  beautiful:  it  seems  to  me  one 
and  the  other  boy  is  beautiful.  Memnon  to  me  is  beautiful,  dear."  The 
frequency  of  this  style  of  inscription  has  led  to  much  discussion  of  its 
origin  and  intent,  without  satisfactory  solution.  It  has  been  suggested 
that  they  referred  to  children,  and  were  presents,  or  that  they  have  al- 
lusion to  victors  in  games,  or  to  persons  specially  popular  among  a  people 
who  loved  beauty,  and  that  potters  placed  them  on  vases  to  suit  public- 
taste.  Inscriptions  inten- 
tionally illegible  are  of  fre- 
quent occurrence,  and  unex- 
plained. 

Owners  incised  their 
names  on  vases  and  cups, 
thus :  "  I  belong  to  Tro- 
mios ;"  and  occasionally  add- 
ed warnings  such  as  boys 
used  to  write  in  school- 
books  :  "  I  am  the  Lecythos 
of  Tataies,  and  may  he  who 
steals  me  be  blind  !"  "  I  am 
the  cup  of  Kephisophon ; 
if  any  one  breaks  me,  let 
him  pay  a  drachma:  the  gift 
of  Xenokrates." 

The  largest  pottery  object  made  by  the  Greeks  was  the  pithos.     It 
was  common  also  to  the  Egyptians  and  the  Romans,  and  among  all  nations 


54.  Diogenes  in  his  Tub,  or  Pithos.     (From  a  Roman  lamp.) 


GREECE. 


85 


served  the  purposes  of  a  cellar  for  the  storage  and  preservation  of  all 
kinds  of  provisions.  It  was  moulded  with  clay  around  a  frame.  Its 
gigantic  size  well  titted  it  to  be,  as  it  often  was,  the  refuge  of  the  poor 
seeking  shelter.  This  was  the  tub  of  Diogenes,  who  is  represented  on  a 
Roman  lamp,  seated  in  the  mouth  of  an  old  broken  pithos,  receiving  the 
visit  of  the  Macedonian  hero  (111.  51). 

The  most  frequent  form  of  vase  was  the  amphora,  also  an  ancient 
Egyptian  and  Phenician  form.  It  was  of  long  cylindrical  or  ovoid  body, 
made  in  all  sizes,  from  the  small  drug  vase  two  or  three  inches  high  to 
the  large  receiver  of  oil,  grain,  fruit,  wine,  or  water.  Originally  the  base 
was  pointed,  to  be  pressed  into  the  sand  or  soil,  arid  thus  hold  the  vase 
upright ;  but  later,  and  always  in  ornamental  vases,  the  pointed  base  was 
surrounded  with  a  small  foot.  The  invariable  two  handles  gave  the  name 
to  the  vase.  This  was  a  favorite  vase  for  decoration,  and,  thus  finished, 
was  a  noble  household  ornament  and  adornment  on  festal  occasions. 

From  the  early  days  of  fine  pottery,  the  Greeks  admired  it,  and  the 
art  was  cultivated  by  the  patronage  of  the 
wealthy  and  refined.  Superbly  painted  am- 
phorae were  frequently  prizes  of  victors  in  the 
games.  Panathenaic  amphorae,  prizes  in  the 
Athenian  contests,  are  among  the  noblest  relics 
of  Grecian  art  (111.  51).  The  amphora,  made 
of  coarse  unglazed  pottery,  was  the  common 
vehicle  for  the  preservation  and  transportation 
of  wines,  oils,  and  fruit.  Ithodian  amphorae 
went  to  all  parts  of  the  Eastern  world.     These 

often  had  the  makers'  names  stamped  on  the 

i        ,i  i  ,.  ,-,  ,.  .      55.  Amphora  with  stamped  Handle. 

handles,  and  sometimes  the  name  of  a  magis- 
trate, around  a  stamped  device.     Thus  the  symbolic  rose  of  Rhodes  fre- 
quently appears  on  amphorae,  as  on  coins  of  that  island. 

The  krater  was  a  gigantic  punch -bowl,  from  which  at  feasts  the 
mixed  winesv  were  dipped  out  in  the  oinoehoe,  or  wine-pitcher,  and  poured 
into  the  various  forms  of  cups  held  by  the  guests.  The  oinoehoe,  borne 
by  a  page,  must  never  be  placed  on  the  krater,  for  that  implied  that 
the  wine  was  exhausted  and  the  feast  was  ended.  The  most  common 
form  of  cup  was  the  kylix,  varying  in  shape,  but  always  the  same  in  gen- 
eral character — a  broad,  shallow  cup  six  to  ten  inches  in  diameter,  usually 
with  handles.  The  guests  in  the  symposium  are  represented  on  painted 
vases,  twirling  the  kylikes  on  their  fingers,  as  in  the  illustration  (62). 
The  rhyton  was  another  form  of  drinking-cup,  in  a  variety  of  shapes,  some- 


S 


86 


ANt  TENT  POTTERY. 


66.  The  Klivton. 


times  that  of  a  horn,  more  frequently  with  its  foot  extending  into  the 
head  of  a  deer  or  other  animal.     It  could  not  be  set  down  till  emptied. 

The  prochoos  was  the  ordinary  jug  or 
pitcher,  used,  like  modern  pitchers,  for 
all  liquids,  and,  like  them,  varying  in 
form.  The  epiphysis  was  a  little  per- 
fume or  oil  pitcher,  most  frequently 
made  in  metal,  but  often  in  pottery. 
The  oxyba/phon  was  used  to  hold  vin- 
egar for  table  use.  The  kantharos,  a 
cup  with  a  high  handle,  was  the  ladle.  In  short,  the  form  in  general 
suggests  the  use  of  the  article,  and  it  is  a  safe  rule  in  antiquarian  re- 
search, when  seeking  the  probable  purpose  of  an  object,  to  ask,  "What 
would  we  use  it  for?"  An  explorer  once,  in  our  presence,  showed  an 
American  gentleman  a  curious  object  in  ancient  pottery,  and  asked  him 
what  he  supposed  it  was.  The  American  instantly  replied,  "  When  I  was 
a  boy  in  the  country,  we  used  just  that  shaped  object  in  tin  to  hang  on 
the  wall  and  hold  a  candle,  and  I  should  call  it  a  sconce."  The  aston- 
ished explorer  exclaimed,  "I  have  shown  it  to  scores  of  people.  One 
thought  it  a  chariot  box,  another  a  sacrificial  vessel  —  no  one  knew  it; 
but  you  are  right,  fori  found  it  hanging  on  the  wall  of  a  tomb,  and  here 
is  the  pottery  lamp  which  was  in  it." 

The  Greeks  made  pottery  for  as  great  a  variety  of  purposes  as  any 
ancient  or  modern  people.  Bricks  and  tiles  were  used  as  we  use  them, 
for  architectural  and  other  purposes.  When  the  custom  prevailed  of 
burning  the  dead,  vases  were  used  to  receive  the  ashes.  Sepulchral  vases 
were  of  many  forms,  and  sometimes  costly 
vases,  which  had  been  treasures  of  art  to  the 
living,  were  devoted  to  the  final  use  of  holding 
their  dust,  The  ashes  of  the  victor  at  the 
games  sometimes  reposed  in  the  vase  which 
had  been  the  prize  of  his  triumph.  The  larger 
number  of  vases  and  objects  in  Greek  pottery 
which  have  been  recovered  in  modern  times 
were  deposited  with  the  dead  as  furniture  of 
the  tomb.  In  frequent  cases  numbers  of  vases, 
large  and  small,  are  found  in  one  tomb,  standing  on  the  floor  or  hanging 
on  the  walls.  These  sometimes  appear  to  have  been  articles  prized  by 
the  deceased  while  living,  and  placed  by  his  body  with  some  sort  of  feel- 
ing, not  without  occasional  illustration  in  our  own  time,  which  finds  com- 


">T.   Greek    Hurtle   found   in   Cy- 
prus.    (Cesnola  Coll.) 


GREECE. 


87 


fort  in  leaving  the  dead  accompanied  by  some  of  the  associations  of  life. 
Many  of  the  vases  decorated  in  colors  on  white  grounds  seem  to  have 
been  made  for  sepulchral  uses,  and  were  placed  in  the  tombs  immedi- 
ately after  finishing.  The  decorations  of  these  are  in  water  -  colors,  not 
fixed,  but  easily  rubbed  off  by  handling.  Some  of  these  are  among  the 
most  delicate  and  beautiful  works  of  Greek  art.  The  colors  are  fre- 
quently missing,  having  fallen  off  or  disappeared,  leaving  only  the  out- 
lines, traced  with  delicious  taste  and  skill.  Other  vases  have  fixed  white 
grounds.  There  is  not  space  for  description  of  the  exceptional  forms 
and  colors  in  which  pottery  was 
made  and  decorated  by  the  Greeks. 
A  small  bottle  in  the  Cesnola  col- 
lection is  in  the  form  of  a  dove  with 
human  head  (111.  57).  Another,  only 
three  inches  long,  is  a  perfect  repre- 
sentation, in  form,  color,  and  surface 
roughness,  of  an  almond. 

The  ornamental  statuettes  of  the 
Greeks  in  pottery  ranked  in  compar- 
ison with  all  other  ancient  and  mod- 
ern art  as  highly  as  Greek  sculpt- 
ure in  marble.  Exquisite  little  im- 
ages are  found  in  great  numbers  in 
various  localities  —  at  Athens,  Ta- 
nagra,  in  Cyprus,  and  elsewhere. 
These  were  sometimes  brilliantly 
colored,  occasionally  only  washed 
with  white.  In  the  Metropolitan 
Museum  of  Art  are  many  examples 
of  this  delicious  work.  A  small 
image  of  a  child  waking  out  of  sleep 
is  an  exquisite  specimen.  The  bot- 
tle which  is  illustrated  (58)  in  the 
form  of  a  sleeping  slave  of  giant 
muscle  is  beyond  praise. 

The  places  of  manufacture  were    58.  Bottle  in  Form  of  a  Sleeping  Slave :   Creek 
scattered  throughout   the  Greek   cit-        Pottery,  unglazed.     Found  at  Amathus.     (Ces- 

les.     Prior  to  the  Cypriote  discover- 
ies, the  most  ancient  vases  were  supposed  to  be  those  found  in  Asia  Mi- 
nor, and  numerous  potteries  existed  there,  where,  as  in  Cyprus,  the  Greek 


88 


ANCIENT  POTTERY. 


civilization  sprang  up  in  close  contact  with  the  Phenician.  Throughout 
the  Greek  islands,  at  Corinth,  and  elsewhere  on  the  continent,  were  man- 
ufactories of  pottery  for  local  use  and  exportation.  Athens,  however, 
had  the  highest  reputation  for  ceramic  work.  Two  sections  of  the  city 
devoted  to  potters — one  within  and  one  outside  the  walls — were  known 
as  the  kerameikoi.  Remarkably  beautiful  -vases  have  been  found  at 
Athens  in  which  the  decorations  are  on  white  grounds,  in  colors.  All 
varieties  of  pottery  were  here  made,  and  many  of  the  most  superb  speci- 
mens in  museums  are  probably  the  work  of  the  Athenian  ceramists. 

The  noble  vases  and  other  works  in  pottery  which  have  been  found 
in  immense  quantity  in  Southern  Italy,  and  which  were  formerly  sup- 
posed to  be  Etruscan,  are  now  known  to  be  Greek  ;  and  a  very  large  por- 
tion of  the  Greek  vases  in  collections  are 
from  that  part  of  the  world.  Many  of 
these  were  sent  from  Greece  to  Italy ; 
but  Greek  potters  also  went  to  Italy,  and 
there  pursued  their  work.  Greek  pot- 
tery of  all  periods,  from  the  earliest,  is 
found  in  Magna  Grascia.  It  is  supposed 
that  many  of  the  finest  specimens  found 
in  Italy  were  made  at  Athens.  The  Phe- 
nicians,  who  had  been  surpassed  by  the 
Greeks  as  manufacturers,  were  still  the 
commercial  people  of  the  East,  and  Phe- 
nician  ships  carried  the  Athenian  pottery  to  all  parts  of  the  known  world. 
Samos  was  an  early  seat  of  pottery.  The  oldest  known  description 
of  the  art  is  contained  in  some  lines  attributed  to  Homer.  The  story  is 
told  in  the  life  of  Homer  (by  Herodotus?)  that  the  poet  was  driven  by  a 
storm  to  take  shelter  in  a  pottery  in  Samos,  where  he  passed  the  night, 
and  was  found  in  the  morning  by  the  potters,  who  recognized  him,  and 
demanded  a  song,  promising  therefor  a  vase.  Homer  thereupon  sang 
the  "Song  of  the  Furnace,"  in  which  he  invokes  Athene,  praying  that 
the  vases  to  be  made  may  not  be  burned  black,  but  all  baked  at  the  right 
heat,  and  come  out  good  merchantable  ware;  and  in  the  event  that  the 
potters  do  not  pay  him  his  promised  reward,  he  adds  imprecations,  invok- 
ing fracture,  warping,  too  great  baking;  especially  praying  that  irrepressi- 
ble tire  may  melt  the  contents  of  the  furnaces  in  masses  that  will  horrify 
the  potters,  that  cracking  sounds  may  come  from  the  furnaces,  and  the 
vases  be  broken  to  pieces. 

The  clay  of  -Samos  was  celebrated,  and  the  pottery  distinguished  for 


Latona,     (From  a  Greek  vase.) 


(1  REEL E. 


89 


its  hardness.     Here  was  made  the  rich  red  ware  known  as  Samian,  which 

became  a  favorite  pottery  of  the  Romans, 

used  by  them  for  domestic  purposes,  even 

for  dinner  services.     It  was  of  a  tine  bright, 

artificial  red,  highly  polished  on  the  surface, 

with  a  thin  lustre,  produced  by  the  unknown 

glaze  or  by  the  polishing.     These  wares  were   °°-  Greek  K.vlix-  Red  ware.   (Ces- 

-,  ,  j,  nola  Coll.) 

popular  everywhere  tor  common  use  as  cups, 

bowls,  jugs,  and  general  domestic  purposes,  and  were   sometimes   orna- 
mented by  patterns  engraved  on  the  surface  or  reliefs  applied. 

Fragments  of  broken  pottery  were  commonly  nsed  by  the  Greeks  for 

writing  purposes,  as  a  substitute  for 
papyrus  or  parchment.  The  word 
oGTpaKov  (ostrakon)  signified  "pot- 
tery "  as  well  as  "  a  shell ;"  and  it  is 
by  some  insisted  that  ostracism  was 
so  called  because  the  votes  for  and 
against  banishment  were  written  on 
fragments  of  pottery,  instead  of  the 
received  idea  that  the  Greeks  voted 
with  shells. 

Specimens  of  enamelled  pottery 
have  been  found  in  Rhodes,  Cyprus, 
Southern  Italy,  and  elsewhere,  which 
have  been  supposed  to  be  Greek  work.  These  are  generally  small  ob- 
jects, often  very  beautiful.  The  enamel  is  like  the  Egyptian,  blue  or 
green,  the  ornamentation  consisting  of  zigzags,  and  lines  of  white.  A 
single  specimen  of  this  ware,  representing  a  lotus -flower,  in  pale  blue 
with  inlaid  lines  of  white,  was  found  at  Kurium.  These  pieces  are  not 
common,  and  if  not  of  Egyptian 
manufacture,  certainly  do  not  seem 
to  have  been  a  product  of  Greek  art 
in" general,  nor  so  popular  as  to  be  in 
wide  demand.  The  Greeks  confined 
themselves,  with  rare  exceptions,  to 
the  lustrous  ware.  Objects  of  un- 
doubted Egyptian  ware,  of  enamelled 
pottery,  are  found  in  Cyprus,  South- 
ern Italy,  and  elsewhere,  and  were  evidently  articles  prized  by  the  Greeks. 
Another  class  of  ware  is  found  occasionally,  which  is  moulded,  with 


61.  The  Pyrrhic  Dance.      (From  a  Greek  vase.) 


62.  Symposium.     (From  a  Greek  vase.) 


90  AXCIENT  POTTERY. 


vines,  fruit,  etc.,  in  relief,  colored  and  glazed.  This  is  probably  of  late 
period — possibly  Roman.  On  a  very  beautiful  cup  of  this  ware  found  in 
Cyprus,  the  glaze  has  undergone  the  same  change  which  occurs  in  ancient 
glass  in  that  island,  being  decomposed  and  tinely  iridescent.  Before  the 
Christian  era  Greek  ceramic  art  had  passed  through  its  finest  period  and 
decadence.  The  Romans  had  little  taste  for  such  work,  and  pottery  be- 
came again,  as  it  had  at  first  been,  a  material  devoted  to  purposes  of  utility 
rather  than  ornament. 


VI.-ETRURIA. 

So  long  as  it  was  supposed  that  the  magnificent  vases  found  in  such 
enormous  quantity  in  the  sepulchres  of  Italy  were  the  work  of  Etruscan 
potters,  the  highest  interest  attached  to  the  ceramic  art  of  that  people. 
But  when  it  became  clear  that  these  were  Greek,  the  scope  of  the  Etrus- 
can art  in  pottery  was  exceedingly  narrowed,  and  it  possesses  but  little 
interest. 

The  Etruscans  were  Phenician  in  descent  and  character,  and  there  is 
much  in  their  arts  which  indicates  that  they  were  always  in  close  alliance 
and  communication  with  their  relatives  in  the  more  eastern  part  of  the 
Mediterranean.  Much  fine  work  in  metal  and  engraved  stone  is  still  as- 
signed to  them  because  found,  as  were  the  vases,  in  their  country.  How 
much  of  this  was  in  reality  Etruscan,  and  how  much  the  work  of  Pheni- 
cian artists  elsewhere,  it  does  not  concern  us  to  discuss  here. 

Their  oldest  pottery,  dating  probably  from  a  period  before  TOO  B.C., 
seems  to  have  been  a  somewhat  rude  ware  in  dark  grayish-brown  color. 
Possibly  wares  in  black  are  equally  ancient.  Both  wares  continued  to  be 
made  for  a  long  period,  and  the  black  was  that  in  which  they  approached 
most  nearly  to  the  production  of  high  art. 

They  made  four  kinds  of  pottery  —  brown,  black,  yellow,  and  red. 
They  also  made  unglazed  wares,  decorated  with  surface -paintings  not 
baked.  Of  the  latter  the  most  remarkable  objects  are  sarcophagi  of  red 
and  of  yellow  clay,  with  reliefs,  and  on  the  covers  recumbent  figures. 
The  whole  was  washed  with  white,  on  which  Mere  paintings  in  brilliant 
colors.  Some  of  these  were  large  enough  to  hold  the  body,  but  the  ma- 
jority were  small,  serving  the  purpose  of  urns  for  the  ashes  of  the  dead. 

In  the  brown  ware  curious  small  vases  were  made,  in  the  shape  of 
huts,  decorated  sometimes  with  bars  to  indicate  the  beams  forming  the 
roof  of  a  cottage,  and  with  bosses.     These  were  also  used  as  funereal 


ETRURIA.  91 


urns.  The  decorations  on  the  brown  wares  in  general  were  of  the  primi- 
tive sort,  in  incised  lines  and  rude  reliefs.  Wine  and  water  jugs,  cups, 
and  other  objects  are  known. 

The  black  wares  are  of  various  thickness  and  merit  in  different  local- 
ities. The  ornaments  are  incised  or  in  relief,  occasionally  wTell  moulded. 
Animals,  flowers,  etc.,  are  in  friezes,  sometimes  made  by  impression  with 
a  cylinder  rolled  over  the  wet  paste.  There  is  much  that  recalls  the  Phe- 
nician  work  in  the  character  of  these  decorations,  and  often  a  suggestion 
of  the  arts  of  Nineveh  and  Babylon.  The  Etruscans  certainly  had  com- 
mercial intercourse  with  Egypt,  and  much  that  is  Egyptian  is  visible  in 
their  art.  A  class  of  vases  closely  resemble  the  kanopos  of  Egypt,  the 
vase  described  as  intended  to  hold  the  entrails  of  the  dead.  These, 
moulded  to  represent  the  human  figure,  and  holding  the  ashes  of  the 
Etruscan  dead,  were  placed  in  tombs  in  chairs  of  wood  or  of  pottery. 

In  red  pottery  were  made  pithoi  ornamented  with  reliefs  and  friezes, 
which  are  of  very  ancient  periods.  Mr.  Birch  supposes  some  of  them  to 
date  about  700  b.c. 

The  yellow  or  buff  ware  is  very  like  the  wares  of  the  same  kind 
made  in  Cyprus,  especially  vases  in  animal  shapes,  and  representations  of 
Venus. 

The  Romans  described  the  Etruscans  as  excelling  in  making  statues 
of  pottery  and  architectural  ornaments.  But  few  specimens  of  their 
work  remain,  and  those  few  are  not  remarkable  works  of  art. 

When  the  Greeks  first  came  into  Italy  they  brought  few  arts  with 
them  ;  but  as  the  ceramic  art  advanced  in  Greece,  tine  works  were  sent  to 
the  colonies  in  Magna  Gnecia,  now  become  important  cities,  and  potters 
emigrated  thither.  The  Etruscans  admired  and  imitated,  afar  off,  the 
Greek  work ;  but  the  Etruscan  never  excelled  as  a  potter,  and  none  of 
his  works  were  approximations  to  the  originals  he  desired  to  reproduce. 
Vases  with  figures  in  black  on  red  and  in  red  on  black  were  made,  but  in 
poor  style.  The  red,  instead  of  being  left  in  the  surface  color  of  the  pot- 
tery, was  laid  on  in  a  clay  wash  over  the  black  with  which  the  vase  had 
been  coated.  The  subjects  painted  were  chiefly  from  Greek  mythology 
and  story.  lS"o  original  Etruscan  art  is  found,  although  occasional  rep- 
resentations are  seen  of  Etruscan  divinities  and  demons.  Inscriptions 
occur  in  the  Etruscan  language.  Some  of  these  vases  are  of  later  period, 
bringing  the  art  down  nearly  to  the  Christian  era. 


!»2 


ANCIENT  POTTERY. 


VII— ROME. 

The  long  history  of  the  Roman  power  is  marked  by  very  little  ce- 
ramic work  which  can  be  regarded  as  of  high  art,  although  no  people  of 
ancient  or  modern  times  appear  to  have  made  such  extensive  use  of  pot- 
tery for  purposes  of  architecture  and  general  utility.  Bricks  Mere  made 
in  great  quantities,  and  tiles  for  rooting,  drainage,  and  other  purposes. 


63.  Charon,  Hermes,  and  a  Human  Soul. 
(From  a  Roman  lamp.) 


64.  Hercules  and  the  Nemsean  Lion. 
(From  a  Roman  lamp.) 


These  objects  had  stamps,  which  the  law  required  makers  to  place  on 
their  works.  The  stamps  give  names  of  makers,  of  owners  of  clay-pits,  of 
consuls,  with  dates,  and  are  of  the  highest  importance  for  the  historical 
information  thus  preserved.  Graves  were  enclosed  with 
tiles,  and  the  stations  of  Roman  legions  in  various  parts 
of  the  world  are  ascertained  from  the  stamps  on  tiles 
in  soldiers'  graves.  All  the  useful  forms  of  tiles  known 
to  us  were  common  to  the  Romans.  Roof  tiles,  wall 
tiles,  flues  for  hot  air,  mosaic  pavements,  were  made  of 
pottery.  The  inscriptions  found  on  these  are  the  prede- 
cessors of  factory  marks  found  on  modern  pottery  and 
porcelain,  some  of  them  giving  the  date,  the  name  of 
the  proprietor  of  the  estate  where  they  were  made,  the 
potter,  and  even  the  slave  who  moulded  them.  Cor- 
nices, friezes,  gutters,  and  spouts  were  made.  Orna- 
mental work  for  architectural  use  was  painted  in  colors 
— black,  red,  blue,  green,  and  yellow. 

In  earl}-  times  Greek  and  Etruscan  potters  made  statues  for  Rome, 


65.   Roman  Pottery. 
A  Grotesque. 


HOME. 


93 


and  these  were  abundant  till  the  Imperial  pariod.     Small  statues  and  fig- 
ures were  in  favor  and  common  with  the  Romans,  representing  a  great 
variety  of  subjects,  mythological  and  real.     Actors,  buffoons,  dwarfs,  por- 
trait figures  abound.     Wherever  the  Roman  power  extended 
in  Europe  these  figures  are  found  in  quantity.     They  were 
called  sigilla,  or  sigillaria;    the   last  days  of  the  Saturnalia, 
called  Sigillaria,  being  the  time  when  it  was  customary  to 
make  presents  of  these  images.     The  market-place  in  Home 
where  they  were  sold  was  called  by  the  same  name. 

Cages,  money-boxes,  even  theatre -tickets,  were  made  of 
pottery.  These  last  are  the  prototypes  of  the  modern,  having 
on  them  the  number  of  the  row  of  benches  and  the  seat  to 

66.  Roman  Pot- 

which  the  bearer  was  entitled,     lottery  moulds  have  been  terv    a  Dwarf, 
found  which  were  used  by  forgers  to  cast  false  coin.     A  hun- 
dred and  thirty  moulds  were  found  in  one  lot  in  France,  and  at  another 

place    moulds    were    found, 


with  more  than  two  thou- 
sand pieces  of  false  silver 
coin.  Moulds  have  also 
been  found  for  making  re- 
lief ornaments  to  be  imposed 
on  vases. 

The  two  finest  classes  of 
67.  BowL    Samian  ware.  pottery  made  by  the  Romans 

are  known  as  Aretine  ware,  from  Aretium,  where  it  was  made;  and  Sami- 
an ware,  from  the  Greek  ware  of  Samos,  which  this  resembles. 

The  Aretine  ware  was  bright  red,  sometimes  nearly  as  brilliant  as  red 
sealing-wax,  unglazed,  or  more  fre- 
quently covered  with  a  thin  but  rich 
lustre.  It  was  moulded  with  relief 
ornaments  and  figures.  Pliny  says 
this  ware  was  used  in  his  time,  as 
well  as  the  Samian,  for  table  pur- 
poses. A  few  specimens  are  known 
in  black.  The  objects  are  mostly 
small.  The  paste  is  somewhat  softer 
and  the  lustre  less  strong  than  that 
of  the  Samian  ware,  which,  however,  so  closely  resembles  it  that  it  is  not 
always  possible  to  distinguish  the  two,  especially  as  both  were  made  at 
Aretium. 


68.  Roman  Moulds  for  Pottery. 


94 


ANCIENT  POTTERY. 


tilt.  Bowl.    Samian  ware. 


The  red  Roman  ware  called  Samian  is  found  in  all  parts  of  the  world 

to  which  the  Roman  le- 
gions went.  It  is  similar 
to  the  Aretine,  but  strong- 
er in  body  and  lustre.  It 
was  used  for  all  the  do- 
mestic purposes  to  which 
we  apply  porcelain.  It  is 
remarkable  that  this  ware, 
wherever  found,  appears  to 
be  of  the  same  fabric  as  to 
clay  and  lustre,  although  it 
was  evidently  made  in  various  localities.  Many  objects  in  it  present  very 
line  decorations  in  relief.  Potters'  names  abound  on  it,  and  inscriptions 
are  known,  such  as  Bibe  Amici  de  meo  ("  Friend,  drink  from  my  cup  ',). 
At  Paris  cups  of  a  late  period  were  found,  of  curious  shape,  coarse  red 
glaze,  with  inscriptions  in  relief,  such  as  Ospita,  Reple  Lagona  Cervesa, 
which  may  be  freely  translated  in  the  well-known  line,  "  Come,  land- 
lord, fill  the  flowing  bowl ;"  or,  literally,  "  Landlord,  fill  up  the  jug  with 
beer."" 

Among  the  most  important  and  most  beautiful  works  of  the  Romans 
in  pottery  are  lamps.  These  abound  in  va- 
ried shapes,  with  ornaments  in  relief,  in  all 
the  kinds  of  pottery  described,  as  well  as  in 
red  lustrous  pottery  like  that  of  Cyprus. 
The  designs  on  lamps  are  of  great  variety, 
and  exhibit  as  a  class  the  finest  artistic  work 
found  in  Roman  pottery.  The  illustrations 
will  give  an  idea  of  some  of  these.  Pot- 
ters' names  are  of  frequent  occurrence  on 
them.  The  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art  in 
New  York  possesses  an  admirable  collection  of  several  hundred  Roman 
lamps,  illustrating  styles,  shapes,  mid  decorations. 

As  the  Roman  Empire  began  to  decay,  the  decadence  of  all  the  arts 
was  marked.  The  pottery  of  the  second,  third,  and  fourth  centuries  of 
the  Christian  era  is  of  small  artistic  importance.  Lamps  of  these  cen- 
turies which  bear  inscriptions  or  devices  of  Christian  character  are  nu- 
merous and  interesting.  Some  of  these  have  been  mentioned  as  found 
in  Egypt.  As  there,  so  in  other  parts  of  the  Roman  dominions,  lamps 
are  found  having  various   Christian  emblems,  crosses,  the  monogram  of 


*7<».  Triton.      (From  a  Roman  lamp.) 


ROME. 


95 


71.  Cybele.     (From  a  Roman  lamp.) 


( Jhrist,  the  golden  candlestick  used  in  allusion  to  the  seven  churches,  the 

fish,  and  inscriptions. 

In  the  fourth  century,  and  later,  pottery  was  made  in  all  parts  of  the 

empire,  in  black  lustrous  ware,  of  inferior  workmanship,  decorated  with 

raised  ornaments  placed  on  the  surface,  hunting  scenes,  wreaths,  animals, 

and  sometimes  with  patterns  in  engraved  lines.     The  common  form  is  a 

mug,  but   vases    are  found.      The  larger 

part    of  the   articles  are  small  drinking- 

cups,  and  on  these  are  found  inscriptions 

in  white,  such  as  Imple  ("  Fill  up")  ;  Bibe 

("  Drink  ")  ;  Bibamus  pie  ("  Let  us  drink 

piously");  Smo  ("I  thirst");  Ut  felex 

vivas  ('"May  you  live  happy");   Vinim 

tibi  dulcis  ("  Wine  for  you,  sweet  one  ")  ; 

Ave    ("  Hail ") ;    Amo    te    condite    ("  I 

love  thee,  cherished  one"). 

In  England  and  other  parts  of  Europe 

distant  from  Rome  are  found  great  quan- 
tities of   Roman    pottery.     The    red    Sa- 

mian  Mare   is   found  in   England,  but  none   seems  to  have  been    made 

there.  The  decadence  of  art  is  exhib- 
ited in  the  rude  character  of  the  Roman 
black  pottery  of  the  later  periods.  These 
articles  are  of  various  color,  from  black 
to  gray ;  the  glaze  on  some  brilliant,  on 
others  dull;  the  sizes  varying,  mostly 
small  cups,  bottles,  and  vases.  The  orna- 
mentation consists  largely  of  small  lumps 
of  clay  arranged  in  regular  patterns. 
Some  are  decorated  with  pebbles  em- 
bedded in  the  clay.  Much  of  this  ware 
is  found  in  England,  at  and  near  Up- 
church,  and  is  sometimes  called  Up- 
church  ware.  Another  variety  of  black 
ware  is  found  at  Castor,  in  Northamp- 
tonshire, as  well  as  in  various  places  on 
the  Continent,  which  is  known  as  Castor 
ware. 

The  rapid  survey  which  has  been  taken  of  the  history  of  ancient  pot- 
tery is  but  for  the  purpose  of  introducing  the  student  to  the  more  mod- 


72.  Late  Roman  Vase.     (Castor,  England.) 


or. 


ANCIENT  POTTERY. 


era  history.     The   literature  of  the  ceramic  art  of  the  ancients  is  ex- 
tensive.     Many    large    works,  devoted   to   illustrations   of   Greek  vases, 

have  been  published  during  the  last  and 
present  century,  edited  by  Passeri,  Millin, 
Tischbein,  D'Hancarville,  Millingen.  La- 
borde,  Inghirami,  Gerhard,  the  Due  de 
Luynes,  and  other  eminent  scholars.  The 
American  student,  however,  will  find  the 
most  thorough  and  exhaustive  work  on  the 
subject,  which  we  have  freely  used  in  this 
I  sketch,  "  The  History  of  Ancient  Pottery," 
by  Dr.  Samuel  Birch,  one  of  the  most  ac- 
complished of  living  antiquarians.  The  im- 
{  pc  urc  ,  p0rtant  discoveries  made  in  Cyprus  since 
the  publication  of  the  last  edition  of  Dr. 
Birch's  work,  adding  greatly  to  our  knowledge  of  early  Greek  art,  serve 
to  show  the  accuracy  and  scholarly  care  with  which  he  has  investigated 


T3.  Late  Roman  Vase. 
England.) 


74.  Romano-British  Vases. 


the  subject,  and  summed  up  the  results  of  former  explorations,  suggesting 
solutions  of  many  doubtful  cpiestions  which  are  fully  confirmed  by  the 
Cypriote  discoveries. 


PART    II. 

MODERN     POTTERY. 


I.-SARACEN. 

Under  the  name  of  Saracen  potteries  we  propose  to  include  all  the 
fabrics,  opaque  and  translucent,  of  the  Asiatic  races  as  well  in  Persia  as  in 
the  countries  which  were  overrun  and  conquered  by  the  followers  of  Mo- 
hammed in  the  seventh  and  later  centuries.  The  history  of  their  work 
in  pottery  commences  in  Persia  in  the  seventh  century,  and  ends  with  a 
few  modern  factories  in  Anatolia  and  Northern  Africa.  The  principal 
seats  of  manufacture  west  of  Persia  were  at  Damascus,  Ehodes,  in  the 
Majorcan  Islands,  and  Spain.  But  there  were  doubtless  a  great  number 
of  local  factories,  scattered  here  and  there  through  the  East.  The  prev- 
alence of  the  use  of  enamelled  tiles  for  interior  and  exterior  architectural 
purposes  indicates  the  existence  of  potteries  in  nearly  every  city  of  any 
magnitude  under  Mohammedan  government. 

The  ceramic  products  of  the  Saracens  include  pottery  and  porcelain, 
and,  for  convenience,  both  are  described  under  the  present  division.  The 
Pottery  is  divided,  by  its  style  of  decoration  into  two  great  classes,  the 
one  decorated  with  metallic  lustre,  the  other  with  colors.  The  colored 
decorations  include  wares  painted  and  glazed,  and  wares  covered  with 
stanniferous  enamel.  All  these  kinds  of  pottery  seem  to  have  been  made 
at  the  same  time  through  a  long  period. 

The  Porcelain  was  made  in  Persia  only,  and  is  of  both  varieties — soft- 
paste  and  hard-paste. 

It  is  possible  and  probable  that  the  Arabians  possessed  some  knowl- 
edge of  decorative  ceramic  art  before  the  days  of  Mohammed,  but  their 
art  as  known  to  us  indicates  so  clearly  its  Persian  origin  that  we  may 
assume  as  evident  their  adoption  of  the  styles  found  in  Persia,  and  the 
subsequent  growth,  under  their  taste  and  influence,  of  peculiar  styles 
which  are  properly  called  Saracen. 

7 


98  MODERN  POTTERY. 


A  varying  extent  of  country  has  been,  at  different  periods  of  history, 
under  Persian  power.  Iran,  the  home  of  the  Aryan  or  Iranian  races,  in- 
cludes in  general  use  .Media  and  Persia  proper,  and  the  entire  middle 
portion  of  Asia  stretching  to  the  east  as  far  as  the  western  borders  of 
Chinese  Tartary,  and  southward  along  the  Persian  Gulf  to  the  range  of 
mountains  bounding  the  valley  of  the  Indus.  In  the  western  portion  of 
this  territory  a  family  of  the  race  of  man,  lingering  while  the  others  went 
westward  to  the  plain  of  Shinar,  or  returning  from  the  Dispersion,  pos- 
sibly preserved  the  old  manners,  customs,  and  language  of  their  antedilu- 
vian ancestors.  From  them  went  out  colonies,  who  became  progenitors 
of  the  vast  hordes  in  India  on  the  south,  and  in  China  on  the  east,  in  the 
colder  regions  of  the  north,  and  of  those  other  hordes  who,  sweeping  along 
to  the  westward,  hardened  by  the  climates  in  which  they  lived,  have  from 
time  to  time,  in  all  ages  since  then,  descended  into  the  more  southern 
regions,  peopled  from  the  other  families,  and,  with  rare  exceptions,  over- 
come and  possessed  them. 

Ketaining  perhaps  longer  than  any  other  of  the  great  families  of  men 
the  knowledge  and  worship  of  the  one  God,  "the  eternal  Spirit  inhab- 
iting the  universe,"  founder  of  heaven,  earth,  the  sky,  and  all  space, 
they  in  time  divided  this  monotheistic  belief  into  the  idea  of  a  dual 
God,  or  into  two  Gods — one  good,  the  other  evil  —  Ormazd  and  Ahri- 
man;  and  afterward,  by  the  common  course,  the  visible  acts  of  God 
were  personified  as  deity,  until  the  worship  of  fire  became  the  chief 
characteristic  of  the  religion.  It  is  impossible  to  say  when  the  order 
of  the  Magi,  the  priests  of  the  fire  -  worshippers,  arose.  The  date  of 
Zoroaster  (if  he  ever  lived),  the  reformer  of  the  religion,  is  unknown 
within  many  centuries. 

The  earlier  history  of  the  family  may  be  conjectured  as  not  unlike 
that  of  the  tribes  who  formed  the  Hellenic  confederation.  Herodotus 
names  four  kings  of  Media,  the  last  of  whom  was  Astyages  (594  B.C.), 
with  whom  our  definite  knowledge  of  history  commences.  Ctesias 
^>raks  of  a  King  Arbaces,  who  destroyed  Nineveh  (about  876  b.c.)  ;  but 
this  statement  is  not  .regarded  as  trustworthy.  There  were  doubtless 
quarrels  between  the  sparse  families  in  earlier  times,  the  strong  conquer- 
ing the  weak.  Separate  governments,  patriarchal  and  despotic,  may  have 
grown  up;  the  tide  of  emigration  and  conquest  sometimes  flowed  west- 
ward again,  as  M'ell  as  eastward  ;  varieties  of  language,  having  the  same 
root,  were  used  ;  and  at  the  commencement  of  known  history  two  great 
masses  of  families  or  tribes  appear  in  the  western  portion  of  Central 
Asia,  known  now  as  Persians  and  Medes. 


SARACEN.  99 


These  two  peoples,  as  they  may  be  called,  had  common  religion,  lan- 
guage, and  customs.  The  most  valuable  information  concerning  these 
is  derived  from  the  Hebrew  writer  Daniel.  The  Medes  were  the  ruling 
race,  but  the  Persians  had  a  family  of  hereditary  kings.  In  the  reign  of 
Astyages  (594—558  b.c.)  the  Persians  revolted  under  the  lead  of  Cyrus, 
who  became  king  of  Media  and  Persia,  conquered  Babylon,  and  extended 
his  conquests  to  the  shores  of  the  Archipelago.  The  history  of  the  wars 
in  which  the  powers  of  Iran  were  hurled  against  Greece  and  Egypt  in 
the  succeeding  reigns  need  not  be  recapitulated.  The  Persians  brought 
down  on  them  at  last  the  vengeance  of  the  Greeks  led  by  Alexander, 
who,  when  he  covered  the  dead  body  of  Darius  with  his  cloak  on  the 
battle-field  of  Arbela  (330  b.c),  spread  also  the  pall  over  the  kingdom 
of  the  Medes  and  Persians,  and  ended  the  westward  progress  by  force  of 
the  Aryan  races,  language,  and  influence. 

The  Greeks  did  not  penetrate  Iran  far  to  the  eastward.  The  deserts 
of  Khorassan  were  an  effectual  barrier,  and  the  lands  beyond  remained 
practically  unknown  to  them.  These  lands,  stretching  away  to  the  al- 
most mythical  Serica,  Sinae,  and  the  home  of  the  Scythians  beyond  the 
Imaus,  were  peopled  by  various  tribes,  acknowledging  probably  the  su- 
premacy of  the  Median  and  Persian  power.  But  under  the  successors  of 
Alexander,  250  b.c,  the  Parthian  Arsaces  revolted  against  Antiochus  and 
founded  the  Parthian  kingdom,  and  at  about  the  same  time  the  Bactrian 
kingdom  was  established.  The  Seleucidan  kings  retained  possession  of 
Persia  proper  until  1GI  b.c,  when  the  Parthians  subjected  the  country, 
and  possessed  it  for  four  hundred  years.  In  226  a.b.,  the  Persians  re- 
established their  independence,  and  the  reign  of  the  Sassanidse  com- 
menced. The  magian  fire-worship  was  again  the  religion  of  the  king- 
dom, which  continued  till  the  Arabian  invasion,  when  the  followers  of 
Mohammed,  in  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century,  poured  in  an  irresist- 
ible flood  over  Western  Asia,  and  established  their  religion  with  their 
power  over  the  entire  extent  of  ancient  Iran.  The  last  of  the  fire-wor- 
shippers—  the  Parsees  —  retired  into  India,  and  Mohammedanism  pene- 
trated that  country  and  China. 

The  history  of  Iran  has  not  been  thus  summarized  without  object. 
The  study  of  ceramic  art  in  connection  with  this  history  is  to  become  of 
great  interest.  The  country,  the  heart  of  Asia,  is  unexplored.  Its  art 
history  is  enveloped  in  darkness.  Into  this  country  the  history  of  enam- 
elled pottery  leads  from  its  origin  in  Egypt ;  here  it  was  made  by  the 
Assyrians,  until  all  record  of  the  art  is  lost.  Not  quite  all.  The  burial- 
mounds  of  Warka  afford  enough  indications  to  show  a  series  of  painted 


100  MODERN  POTTERY. 


and  glazed  potteries  from  the  Babylonian  to  and  through  the  Sassanian 
period.  The  Hebrew  bowls  found  by  Mr.  Layard,  though  doubted  by 
some,  may  be  links  in  the  missing  chain,  rude  pottery  as  they  are.  A 
glazed  earthenware  bottle,  found  by  Mr.  Layard  at  Babel,  is  perhaps  of 
the  Sassanian  period.  Further  explorations  in  Persia  will  probably  give 
clearer  information  on  the  now  obscure  history  of  the  relationship  be- 
tween Assyrian  enamelled  pottery  and  the  works  of  China  on  the  East 
and  of  the  Mohammedans  on  the  West. 

The  line  which  on  modern  maps  divides  the  Iranian  from  the  Chinese 
territories  was  probably  not  defined  until  in  comparatively  recent  times. 
Persia  and  China  have  been  commercial  neighbors  from  the  beginnings  of 
commerce  among  men.  The  Arabs  traded  with  the  Chinese  by  sea  before 
the  Crusades.  Chinese  vessels  were  abundant  in  the  Persian  Gulf  at  an 
early  period.  If  the  myrrhine  vases  of  the  Romans  were,  as  some  sup- 
pose, porcelain,  we  have  Pliny's  statement  that  these  were  made  in  Persia, 
and  Propertius  speaks  of  them  as  "  baked  in  Parthian  furnaces."  Our 
entire  knowledge  of  enamelled  potteries  tends  to  the  idea  as  probable,  in 
the  absence  of  distinct  evidence  to  the  contrary,  that  the  art  of  making 
them  passed  across  Asia  from  Assyria.  Where,  then,  was  the  next  step 
in  the  art,  that  of  making  pottery  itself  translucent,  first  taken?  No 
known  fact  forbids  the  theory  that  porcelain  had  been  made  in  Persia 
before  it  was  made  in  China.  None  of  the  earliest  specimens  remain  in 
either  country.     Specimens  of  equal  appearance  of  age  are  found  in  both. 

There  is,  therefore,  in  Persia  a  field  of  investigation  which  will  proba- 
bly repay  any  amount  of  labor  bestowed  on  it,  since  the  ceramic  history 
of  the  Iranian  countries,  from  the  sixth  century  before  to  the  seventh 
century  after  Christ,  is  probably  the  history  of  the  relations  of  China 
and  India  to  Western  art,  and  thus  of  the  connections  existing  between 
families  of  the  race  now  most  widely  separated  in  every  way.  Should  it 
be  found  that  enamelled  bricks  were  continuously  made  in  Persia  from 
the  Babylonian  period  to  the  Mohammedan  conquest,  the  line  of  trans- 
mission of  the  art  will  be  unbroken  from  the  building  of  the  Pyramids  of 
Egypt  to  the  last  factory  established  in  America. 

When  the  Arabs  invaded  Persia  in  the  seventh  century  they  adopted 
Persian  arts.  Their  history  in  this  respect  bears  some  analogy  to  that 
of  the  G reeks  in  what  has  been  called  their  "colonization"  of  Lydian  or 
Phenician  countries.  The  conquerors  learned  new  arts,  evinced  remark- 
able artistic  powers,  and  transmitted  these  arts  to  their  countrymen  at 
home  and  to  all  the  territories  which  they  conquered.  It  does  not  appear 
whether  the  Persians  were   making  glazed   or  enamelled  pottery  at  the 


SARACEN. 


101 


time  of  the  Aral*  invasion,  but  the  natural  theory  is  that  the  invaders 
found  the  old  Babylonian  art  of  enamelling  brick  still  in  use.  The 
glazed  coffins  of  the  Sassanians  were  perhaps  yet  made  when  the  Arabs 
came,  and  these  were  not  likely  to  be  the  only  style  of  glazed  pottery 
of  the  Persian  potters  of  that  time.  There  is  ground  for  a  suggestion, 
too,  that  the  Saracen  style  of  architecture  indicates  that  it  was  invented 
to  be  ornamented  with  tiles,  rather  than  that  the  tiles  were  applied  to  a 
previously  existing  style. 

The  earliest  specimens  of  Saracen  ceramic  art  are  these  tiles,  the  suc- 
cessors of  the  enamelled  bricks  of  the  ancients.  Before  examining  the 
special  characteristics  of  other  Saracen  products,  it  is  important  to  look 
at  these  tiles,  which,  in  variety  and  beauty,  deserve  separate  classification 
among  their  beautiful  works.  Wherever  found,  they  are  so  much  alike 
in  fabric  and  intent  that  they  are  pre-eminently  illustrative  of  that  one 
wide-spread  art  which  is  purely 


Saracenic.  Old  mosques  and 
tombs  in  Persia,  and  far  to  the 
east  of  modern  Persia,  abound 
in  wall  tiles  of  superb  charac- 
ter. Count  de  Rochchouart  has 
a  blue  glazed  brick,  found  in 
the  ruins  of  the  ancient  city  of 
Kirnian.  Fragments  of  glazed 
tiles  have  been  found  in  the 
ruins  of  Phages,  an  ancient  city 
of  unknown  date,  mentioned  in 
the  story  of  Tobit.  Mosques  at 
Natinz,  of  the  twelfth  century, 
are  built  with  tiles  of  the  finest 
character.  The  Blue  Mosque 
of  Tabreez,  near  Oroomiah,  of 
very  ancient  date,  takes  its  name  from  its  exterior  covering  of  blue  tiles. 

The  Arabs  carried  the  art  swiftly  back  to  Arabia,  for  the  tiles  on  the 
tomb  of  Mohammed  at  Medina  are  supposed  to  date  from  707  a.d.,  when 
that  building  was  erected.  These  tiles  are  glazed,  not  stanniferous.  The 
art  spread  with  the  Saracen  power,  and  old  mosques  in  all  parts  of  the 
East  illustrate  it.  Tiles  are  found  on  the  mosques  at  Nice,  in  Anatolia 
(built  about  1389),  and  at  Iconium,  in  Asia  Minor  (built  before  1275  a.d.). 
At  Bokhara  and  Samarcand,  in  old  Iran,  are  found  wall  tiles  and  pave- 
ments— how  old  is  unknown.     Mr.  Vambery,  who   paid  no  attention  to 


*75.  Group  of  four  Tiles  from  Cairo.    JiliK'  and  green  on 
white,  each  8£  by  U  inches.     (T.-P.  Coll.) 


102 


MODEIIX  POTTKIl  Y. 


ceramic  art,  speaks  of  "colored  bricks"  in  numerous  mosques  of  Samar- 
cand,  and,  describing  the  ruins  of  the  Medresse  Ilanym,  built  by  the  wife 
of  Timour,  says  the  remaining  portion  "has  its  pavement  completely  cov- 
ered with  mosaic  made  <>f  earth,  the  composition  and  coloring  of  which 
are  of  incomparable  beauty,  and  so  firmly  cemented  that  it  occasioned  me 
indescribable  trouble  to  cut  away  the  calyx  of  a  flower,  and  even  of  this  I 
could  only  remove,  in  a  perfect  state, the  innermost  part,  with  three  leaves 
folded  together." 

In  the  masses  of  broken  pottery  which  surround  all  old  Eastern  towns 
fragments  of  tiles  of  great  beauty  abound.  On  the  hill-side  of  Mount 
Moriah,  at  Jerusalem,  which  is  little  else  than  a  mass  of  broken  marble, 
verd-antique,  porphyry,  and  architectural  remains  in  small  pieces,  we  have 
gathered  many  fragments  of  early  Saracen  tiles  of  rich  character. 

The  Kubbet-es-Sukrah  (Dome  of  the  Rock),  at  Jerusalem,  commonly 
but  erroneously  called  the  Mosque  of  Omar,  is  an  admirable  example  of 
this  art.  In  its  present  condition  it  exhibits  the  workmanship  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  when  the  building  was  re- 
stored by  the  Sultan  Suleiman  (1540-'50) ;  but 
among  the  numerous  tiles  which  adorn  it,  its 
porches,  and  attached  buildings,  are  many  much 
■  older  than  this  date,  and  possibly  as  old  as  the 
Jr^  ^A-  m  <^^^[CI   foundation  in  the  seventh  century.      We  have 

in  our  collection  several  specimens  of  these 
which  are  evidently  far  apart  in  date  of  man- 
ufacture. The  illustration  (76)  shows  one  of 
the  exterior  tiles,  the  pattern  in  dark  blue,  al- 

7f..  Tile  from  Kubbet-es-Sukrah,  most  black,  on  ground  originally  white,  but  by 
Jerusalem.  Blue  on  cream-white,  i  i  •  i     i     ^c 

8  inches  by  8     (T  -V  Coll)  a&e  and  exP0Sure  now  become  a  rich  buff  or 

cream-color.  We  have  tiles  of  the  same  pat- 
tern, in  various  sizes,  from  Damascus.  Another  tile  from  the  Dome  of 
the  Rock  is  shown  in  illustration  83. 

Throughout  the  Arab  countries  some  of  the  more  ancient  houses  of 
the  wealthy  have  large  rooms  decorated  from  floor  to  ceiling  with  tiles  in 
rich  color,  the  patterns  running  from  tile  to  tile,  borders  and  bands  follow- 
ing the  curves  and  rectangles  of  the  architecture,  showing  that  the  tiles 
were  made  specially  for  the  rooms  in  which  they  were  placed.  A  noble 
room  thus  decorated  is  in  the  ancient  and  vast  house  of  Said  Sadat,  the 
present  head  of  the  family  of  Mohammed  in  Egypt,  and  several  smaller 
rooms  in  the  extensive  buildings  are  similarly  decorated.  The  Saracens 
had  very  great  taste  in  the  choice  of  decorations  for  special  rooms.     JSoth- 


SARACEN. 


103 


ing  can  be  finer  in  effect,  more  fairy-like,  or  more  marvellous  in  beauty, 
than  the  interiors  of  rooms  surrounded  with  these  brilliant  objects, 
where  the  light  is  only  such  as  comes  through  the  wonderfully  construct- 
ed lattices  of  Aral)  work.  These  lattices  were  made  to  be  seen  from 
the  interior,  and  no  one  who  has  only  admired  their  beautiful  patterns 
from  the  outside  can  appreciate  the  exquisite  effect  from  within,  where 
the  wood  is  invisible,  forming  only  black  outlines  around  the  lace -like 
openings  through  which  the  light  pours.  The  wall  tiles  were  often 
painted  in  the  same  patterns  with  the  lattice-work,  as  in  the  four  illus- 
trated (77). 

The  designs  found  on  the  tiles  afford  good  opportunity  for  the  study 
of  Saracen  art,  to  which  modern 
art  owes  a  vast  amount  of  its 
most  valued  patterns  in  archi- 
tectural, mural,  and  glass  decora- 
tions. The  debt  of  Europe  to 
the  Saracens  has  never  been  suf- 
ficiently recognized. 

Some  of  the  spirit  as  well  as  | 
the  detail  of  this  Saracen  work  ^ 
may  be  traced  to  the  Persians, 
from  whom  it  was  acquired. 
There  are  patterns  in  common 
use  to  the  latest  period  which 
are  undoubtedly  Persian.  The 
Mohammedans,    like    the     lie-  l^^^^^lO^^I^J^^^f/lJ^/H^ 

brews,  did  not  represent  the  llU-  (77.  Group  of  four  Tiles  from  Cairo:  Lattice  Pattern, 

man  form  in  paintings;    but  the  Blue  and  green  on  pale-green  ground,  each  8£  by 

n       .               ,                  ,°    '                  ,.  8A  inches.     (T.-P.  Coll.) 
Persians,  who  are  followers  01 

Ali,  had  no  such  rule.  Hence,  in  decorations  strictly  Persian,  portraits  and 
representations  of  men  on  horseback  are  common.  But  the  Arabian  mind 
was  not  content  with  the  old  Persian  ideas,  and  the  great  wealth  of  Sara- 
cen decorative  patterns  belongs  to  that  mind.  There  is  a  mystery  attend- 
ing the  rise,  growth,  and  decay  of  Arabian  art.  Why  in  the  seventeenth 
century  did  the  Arabs  suddenly  lose  all  taste  and  power  of  execution, 
when  up  to  that  period  they  had  been  in  advance  of  the  whole  world— 
the  teachers  of  Europe  \ 

There  is  a  luxuriance  in  Saracen  decorations  not  equalled  in  any  later 
period.  The  Trumbull-Prime  collection  contains  more  than  two  hundred 
specimens  of  Saracen  wall  tiles,  and  no  one  of  them  fails  to  charm  the  eye 


104 


MODERN  POTTERY. 


of  the  uneducated  by  the  disposition  of  color,  and  of  the  educated  by  the 
peculiar  artistic  skill  exhibited  in  the  arrangement  and  designs. 

Nature  afforded  ample  subjects  for  the  Saracen  artists.  The  growth 
of  plants,  the  intricate  windings  of  the  stems  of  vines,  the  blossoms  of  fa- 
vorite flowers,  were  abundantly  illustrated;  and  although  these  were  not 
always  nor  often  symbolic,  they  established  themselves  so  thoroughly  in 
the  tastes  of  the  people  that  they  were  repeated  without  change  from  cen- 
tury to  century,  in  close  imitation  of  nature,  or  in  conventional  forms 
which  grew  into  use.  The  rose,  which  was  a  special  Persian  decoration, 
is  found  on  old  tiles  in  a  close,  heavy,  stiff  rosette.  The  tulip  in  bud  and 
in  opening  flower  is  well  represented,  and  conventionalized  into  a  form 
sometimes  difficult  to  recognize,  as  on  tiles  illustrated  (78,  82).  The  hya- 
cinth is  never  to  be  mistaken.  The  white  jessamine  blossom  appears  often 
on  blue  grounds.  The  carnation  is  a  favorite  flower,  represented  in  good 
drawing,  and  in  a  conventional  form  (111.  79)  not  difficult  to  recognize. 

On  tiles  from  Damascus  in  our 
collection,  of  the  sixteenth  or 
seventeenth  century,  grape- 
vines and  clusters  of  grapes  are 
represented,  the  vines  running 
from  tile  to  tile,  and  the  clusters 
of  fruit  hanging  in  dark -blue  on 
lighter  blue  grounds,  or  in  pur- 
ple on  blue.  Arabesque  pat- 
terns are  found  in  great  variety, 
chiefly  composed  of  stems  and 
tendrils  of  vines,  with  leaves. 
These  sometimes  pass  over 
many  tiles,  and  are  sometimes 
complete  patterns  on  one  tile, 
s.  Group  of  two  Tiles  from  Damascus,  and  two  from  but  so  arranged  that  some  lines 
Cairo.  Ulue  and  green  on  white.  Each  %\  by  8£  connect  with  the  same  pattern 
inches.    (T.-P.  Coll.)  <m  flRi  adjoining  tnes  in  the  wall, 

or  a  corner  device  Mill  become  complete  when  four  corners  meet.  The 
cypress-tree  was  frequently  represented.  In  the  Egyptian  department  of 
the  Philadelphia  Exhibition,  in  1876,  a  group  of  nine  tiles  was  shown  as 
coining  from  Cairo.  In  our  collection  is  a  precisely  similar  group,  which 
we  obtained  in  Damascus.  The  design  consists  of  architectural  forms. 
cypress -trees,  and  Mohammedan  inscriptions,  forming  with  nine  tiles  a 
single  pattern.     We  have   other  tiles,  also  from   Damascus,  on  each  of 


SARACEN. 


105 


which  stands,  in  the  middle,  a  single  cypress-tree,  and  at  each  side  half  of 
another,  made  complete  by  the  joining  of  the  next  tile.  The  effect  of  a 
wall  covered  with  these  sombre  trees,  in  deep  green,  with  black  lines  indi- 
cating branches,  must  have  been  funereal.  They  were  probably  made  for 
a  tomb. 

On  Persian  tiles,  from  an  early  period,  a  decoration  in  metallic  lustre 
was  used,  which  was  brilliant  and  effective,  and  was  the  parent  of  the  won- 
derful products  of  Gubbio.  This  metallic  lustre,  appearing  on  the  tiles 
at  Natinz,  and  other  early  specimens,  continued  in  use  down  to  the  period 
of  Shah  Abbas  (1582-1  (529  a.d.),  which,  indeed,  is  near  the  end  of  Saracen 
decorated  pottery.  This  lustre  was  an  art  known  only  to  the  Saracens 
until  learned  from  them  by  Maestro  Giorgio,  of  Gubbio,  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  or  by  his  teacher.  We  have  found  fragments  of  lustred  Saracen 
wares  in  the  mounds  of  broken  pottery  around  Cairo,  indicating  the  prac- 
tice of  the  art  there  at  an  early  date.  It,  however,  never  reached  among 
the  Saracens  the  splendor  to  which  it  was  brought  at  Gubbio.  The  ori- 
gin of  this  art  is  unknown.  Did  it  perhaps  spring  from  a  desire  to  imi- 
tate in  tiles  the  golden  effects  of  the  Byzantine  mosaics  % 

The  ground  colors  of  tiles  vary,  the  most  common  being  white  and 
blue.  Some  old  Persian  tiles  in  our  collection  have  a  very  soft  creamy- 
gray  ground,  producing  a  charming  effect. 
A  rare  old  color  is  an  intense  green  ground, 
on  which  arabesque  patterns  are  placed  in 
brilliant  black.  The  designs  are  painted  in 
blue  of  several  shades,  from  the  deepest  to 
the  lightest  turquoise,  green  of  the  same  va- 
riety, purple,  yellow,  mauve,  brown,  red,  and 
black.  Our  notions  about  harmony  of  col- 
ors, which  are  arbitrary  and  generally  in- 
correct, never  trammelled  Saracen  artists. 
Flowers  and  arabesque  patterns  are  usually 
outlined  in  black  or  blue,  and  filled  in  with 
color.  We  have  some  specimens  in  which 
various  colors  are  used  in  such  delicate  taste 
in  small  arabesques  and  rosettes  as  to  give,  at  a  little  distance,  an  almost 
opalescent  effect. 

The  artistic  ability  of  the  Saracens  consisted  chiefly  in  their  admira- 
ble use  and  disposition  of  colors;  but  occasionally  on  tiles  found  at  Da- 
mascus there  is  evidence  of  great  freedom  and  boldness  of  execution 
worthy  any   artist.     A  tile,  10£  by   8   inches,  belonging  to   Mr.  Charles 


19.    Tile    from    Damascus.  Blue, 

green,    and     purple     on  white 

ground.    7|  by  7^  inches.  (T.-P. 
Coll.) 


106 


Mo  DEUX  POTTERY. 


80.  Tile  from  Damascus.  White  on 
dark -blue  ground.  8  by  10£ 
inches.  (Collection  of  C.  D.  War- 
ner, Esq.) 


Dudley  Warner,  at   Hartford,  brought  by  him  from  Damascus,  is  one  of 

a   series,  of  which  the  decoration  must  have  been  exceedingly  beautiful 

and    artistic.      The    ground    is    intense    dark 

blue,  and    over    it    spring   the    stems    of   the 

three  favorite  flowers  —  the   tulip,  hyacinth, 

and  carnation — with  slender  leaves,  and  here 

and  there  a  blossom,  all  in  pure  white,  except 

a  touch  of  green  on  the  bud  of  a  carnation. 

These  white   stems   and   leaves   and   flowers 

were  first  outlined  with  black  on  the  white 

enamel,  and  then   the   ground  was  filled  in 

with  the  blue,  covering  the  black  lines.     The 

whole  group  must  have  presented  on  the  wall 

which  it  covered  an  appearance  hardly  to  be 

surpassed  in  natural  effect,  not  to  be  surpassed 

in  grace  and  beauty. 

Another  enamelled  tile  which  Mr.  Warner 
obtained  in  Damascus  is  in  several  respects  unusual,  and  possibly  of  Per- 
sian fabric.     The  ground  is  marbled  with  white,  having   a  green  tint, 

dark  blue,  black,  and  touches  of  green. 
A  large  Persian  lion  is  well  drawn, 
and  colored  green  —  the  outlines, 
mane,  and  other  details  in  black.  On 
his  back  rests  the  sun  —  the  outline, 
eyes,  and  nose  in  black,  the  mouth 
green.  The  tone  of  the  whole  work 
is  unlike  any  Damascus  ware  in  our 
collection,  or  which  we  have  seen  in 
that  city  or  elsewhere. 

Two  classes  of  pottery  seem  to 
have  been  used  for  these  wall  tiles, 
one  softer  than  the  other,  and  less 
compact.  Two  varieties  of  covering 
are  found  —  one  a  pure  glass  glaze 
laid  over  the  painted  surface,  the  other  stanniferous  enamel.  The  glass 
glaze  is  strong  and  thick,  but  perfectly  transparent.  On  fragments  it  can 
be  lifted  off  in  small  pieces,  and  the  paint  underneath  is  then  easily  scraped 
away,  leaving  the  pottery  exposed.  These  tiles  were  first  baked,  then  cov- 
ered with  a  thick  surface  of  pure  white  clay,  or  prepared  slip,  on  which 
the  designs  were  painted.     The  whole  was  then  glazed  and  baked.     The 


SI.  Tile  from   Damascus.     9i  by  9-J  inches 
(Collection  of  C.  D.  Warner,  Esq.) 


SARACEN. 


107 


8*2.  Tile  from  Damascus,  made  for  a  corner. 
Blue,  green,  and  white.  11  by  84-  inches. 
(T.-P.  Coll.) 


blue,  green,  and  purple  colors  seem  to  have  combined  in  part  with  the 
glaze,  the  red  sometimes  uniting  to  the  glaze,  but  oftener  remaining  free 
in  powder.  The  white  remains  free  under  the  glaze  and  under  the  other 
colors,  and  can  always  be  scraped  off  in  a  sandy  powder. 

The  tiles  with  stanniferous  enamel  are  generally  of  a  purer  white 
than  those  which  are  glazed,  from  the  fact  that  the  glaze  lias  often  a 
slight  greenish  tint,  like  pale -green 
glass,  which  is  not  noticed  until  com- 
pared with  a  pure  white. 

We  have  not  found  any  tiles  dec- 
orated with  the  brilliant  red  which 
characterizes  Rhodian  dishes,  except 
on  the  shores  of,  or  near  to,  the  Med- 
iterranean. All  that  we  have  seen 
thus  decorated  closely  resemble  the 
fabric  of  those  dishes.  Our  experi- 
ence, however,  is  far  from  being  con- 
clusive. 

Damascus  furnishes  a  great  varie- 
ty of  the  most  beautiful  specimens,  the  wealth  and  splendor  of  that  city 
from  the  times  of  Saladin  commanding  the  best  work  of  the  Saracen  ar- 
tists. In  Cairo  and  the  tombs  around  that  city  many  fine  specimens  re- 
main. All  along  the  track  of  the  Arabian  civilization  in  Northern  Af- 
rica they  mark  the  advance  of  Islam ;  and  Spain,  from  the  time  of  the 
Moorish  conquest,  abounded  in  buildings  which  wrere  decorated  wTith 
them. 

In  Constantinople  the  Mosque  of  Suleiman  contains  many,  and  the 
tomb  of  Mustapha,  his  son,  built  in  1544,  is  one  of  the  finest  remaining 
specimens  of  their  use  in  architecture. 

These  beautiful  works  of  art  sometimes  descend  to  base  uses.  Some 
very  fine  specimens  in  our  collection  we  found  in  a  Cairene  cook-shop, 
where  they  were  built  into  a  modern  wall  around  the  furnaces,  the  rich 
blue  and  green  decorations  effectually  concealed  by  the  spattering  of 
grease  and  dirt,  which  had  become  almost  as  firm  as  the  enamel  under 
them. 

The  sizes  vary  according  to  the  requirements  of  the  walls  for  which 
they  are  made.  Among  the  smallest  and  thinnest  in  our  collection  arc 
some  from  the  cloisters  or  porches  of  the  Dome  of  the  "Rock  in  Jerusa- 
lem, being  about  six  inches  square  and  three-eighths  of  an  inch  thick. 

The  Spaniards  gave  to  the  tiles  the  name  asulejo,  supposed  to  be  from 


108  MODERN  POTTERY 


an  Arabic  word  meaning  "painted  tile,"  but  probably  originally  due  to 
the  prevalent  blue  color  on  them,  which  in  Arabic  is  azr,  and  in  Spanish 
azid.  The  mosque  at  Cordova,  built  in  the  eighth  century,  was  cov- 
ered with  them.  The  Alhambra  was  paved  and  its  walls  partly  decorated 
with  them.  The  Cuarto  Ileal,  in  Granada,  is  ornamented  with  white  tiles, 
on  which  are  patterns  in  gold  lustre,  the  designs  being  arabesques  of 
leaves,  vines,  and  tendrils,  a  favorite  pattern  in  the  East.  Mr.  Ford 
("  Hand-book  for  Spain  "),  who  has  collected  and  examined  a  large  variety 
of  azulejos,  thinks  many  of  the  Moorish  tiles  with  blue  enamel  and  de- 
tails in  gold  lustre  as  old  as  1300  a.d.  ;  and  that  the  old  and  fine  work  was 
copied  in  inferior  style  at  a  later  date.  The  fact  that  the  same  patterns 
were  favorites  for  many  centuries,  and  that  the  Saracens  were  good  pot- 
ters at  all  times,  renders  it  difficult  to  determine  the  comparative  age  of 
specimens.  The  Spaniards  learned  the  art  from  the  Saracens,  and  con- 
tinued to  practise  it,  making  reproductions  of  the  ancient  patterns,  and 
introducing  devices  of  their  own,  down  to  modern  times.  The  Saracen 
work  in  the  East  ceased  in  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

These  tiles  were  probably  made  in  the  various  places  where  they  are 
found.  The  same  patterns  were  used,  in  different  potteries.  Lustred  tiles 
are  found  only  in  Persia  and  in  Spain.  AYe  have  specimens  of  painted 
tiles  from  Damascus  and  from  Cairo  which  are  identical  in  size,  pattern, 
and  appearance  (111.  78),  and  it  is  not  probable  that  these  were  carried 
from  one  place  to  the  other.  It  is  questionable  whether  the  tiles  of  the 
Knbbet  in  Jerusalem  were  made  there.  The  variety  is  considerable,  and 
some  specimens  are  of  a  peculiar  make,  the  pottery  more  strong  and  com- 
pact, the  tile  less  than  a  half-inch  in  thickness,  the  enamel  and  blue  and 
srreen  colors  excessively  brilliant.  The  thinness  and  great  beauty  of  these 
recall  the  description  of  the  light  tiles  made  at  Rhodes  for  the  Church 
— -j -^g^pB^^  of  St.  Sophia,  in  the  days  of  Justinian. 

^p        £30^  ^Smi   ''''"'  *''''  lrum  ''"'   Knbbet,  of  which 

we  illustrate  half  (83),  is  decorated  in 
an  intense  blue,  is  only  six  inches 
square,  very  thin,  and  of  a  class  which 
we  have  found  very  rare,  and  appear- 
ing very  ancient. 
*:<.  Half  of  a  Tile  f rom  Kubbet-es-Sukrah,  Je-       °rrn    "  .  .  1  „    0 

rusalem.    Dark  blue  on  white,    o  inches  by          T-hc    history    of    Saracen    pottery 
6.    (T.-P.  Coll.)  has  been  thus  far  considered  with  spe- 

cial reference  to  wall  tiles,  because  in  that  respect  the  art  was  one  from 
the  first.  We  now  return  to  Persia  for  an  examination  of  other  ceramic 
works. 


SARACEN.  109 


The  Saracens  in  Persia  made  vases,  cups,  bowls,  water  and  wine  bot- 
tles, dishes  and  other  objects  in  soft  pottery,  which  were  sometimes 
painted  and  glazed,  sometimes  covered  with  stanniferous  enamel.  This 
Persian  faience  is  of  great  variety  and  beauty. 

Besides  these  wares  in  soft  pottery,  other  wares  were  made  in  Persia 
which  have  given  rise  to  much  discussion,  and  it  is  not  likely  that  the 
questions  will  be  definitely  settled  until  we  have  more  information  on 
the  history  of  art  in  that  country  prior  to  the  eighteenth  century.  If 
we  are  to  accept  the  modern  definition  of  porcelain  as  translucent  pottery, 
of  whatever  materials  made,  all  authorities  agree  that  porcelain  was  made 
in  Persia ;  for  all  class  translucent  potteries  among  Persian  fabrics.  But 
numerous  articles  of  true  hard-paste  porcelain  are  found  in  Persia,  many 
without  mark,  many  with  Chinese  marks  and  Chinese  dates,  some  with 
Persian  inscriptions,  and  of  these  it  is  by  some  eminent  authorities  sup- 
posed that  the  larger  quantity  are  Persian  fabrics,  while  other  equally 
eminent  scholars  believe  them  to  be  all  Chinese,  made  for  the  Persian 
market.  The  conflicting  views  of  these  gentlemen  are  important  for  the 
student's  examination. 

Major  Murdock  Smith,  director  of  the  Persian  telegraph  department, 
made  extensive  collections  of  Persian  art  in  that  country  for  the  South 
Kensington  Museum,  and  at  the  request  of  the  Lords  of  the  Committee 
of  Council  on  Education  prepared  a  brief  dissertation  on  Persian  art. 
We  cannot  better  serve  the  American  student  than  by  quoting  this  gen- 
tleman's clear  account  of  the  pottery  and  porcelain  found  in  Persia  :* 

Before  the  discovery  of  the  passage  to  the  east  round  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope, 
the  trade  from  India  and  China  passed  either  overland  through  Central  Asia,  or  by 
way  of  the  Persian  Gnlf,  to  Europe,  Persia  thereby  becoming  a  central  point  in  the 
transit.  In  the  time  of  Shah  Abbas  (about  1600  a.d.)  this  trade  route  was  still 
much  frequented.  It  is  therefore  to  be  presumed  that  the  Chinese  porcelains  found 
in  Persia  are  of  that  period,  if  not  of  earlier  date.  The  Persians  gave  them  dif- 
ferent names,  such  as  china  of  the  Khalifs,  china  of  Shah  Abbas,  etc.  Any  pieces 
that  may  have  come  to  Persia  in  later  times  are  of  a  totally  different  style.  With 
the  exception  of  a  few  of  these  modern  articles,  none  of  the  Chinese  porcelains 
from  Persia  in  the  [South  Kensington]  museum  collection  can  be  of  later  date  than 
the  reign  of  Shah  Abbas,  and  many  of  them  are  probably  still  older.  Of  their 
authenticity  there  cannot  be  the  slightest  doubt. 

Regarding  the  earthenware  of  Persia,  Chardin  (to  whom  we  are  indebted  for 

*  "  Persian  Art,"  by  Major  R.  Murdock  Smith,  R.E.     Published  for  the  Committee,  etc. :  London, 
Chapman  &  Hall. 


110  MODERN  POTTERY. 


so  many  minute  and  accurate  details  about  Persia  as  it  was  in  the  time  of  our 
own  Queen  Elizabeth),  writing  in  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  says: 
"La  vaisselle  d'email,  ou  de  faience,  cornme  nous  l'appelons,  est  pareillement  une  de 
leurs  plus  belles  manufactures;  on  en  fait  dans  toute  la  Perse.  La  plus  l>elle  se  fait 
a  Shiraz,  a  Meshed,  a  Yezd  et  a  Kerman,  et  particulierement  dans  un  bourg  de 
Caramanie  nomme  Zoronde.  La  terre  de  cette  faience  est  d'email  pur,  tout  en  de- 
dans comme  en  dehors,  comme  la  porcelaine  de  Chine;  elle  a  le  grain  tout  aussi  fin 
et  est  aussi  transparente,  ce  qui  fait  que  souvent  on  est  si  fort  trompe  a  cette  por- 
celaine qu'on  nc  saurait  discerner  celle  de  la  Chine  d'avec  celle  de  la  Perse.  Vous 
trouverez  meme  quelquefois  de  cette  porcelaine  de  Perse  qui  passe  celle  de  la  Chine 
tant  le  vernis  en  est  beau  et  vif." 

There  is  nothing  in  this  passage  to  show  positively  that  true  porcelain  was  ever 
made  in  Persia  ;  that  is  to  say,  porcelain  of  hard  paste  like  that  of  China.  Chardin 
appears  to  use  the  names  faience  and  porcelaine  indiscriminately,  or  perhaps  to 
speak  of  Persian  faience  as  Persian  porcelain,  just  as  we  speak  of  Dresden  china, 
English  china,  etc.,  which  are  of  course  only  imitations  of  real  Chinese  porcelain. 
As  regards  the  paste,  Chinese  porcelain  is  undoubtedly  better  imitated  in  Europe 
than  in  Persia.  Long  before  the  Europeans,  however,  the  Persians  made  such 
beautiful  earthenwares  that  they  might  well  be  mistaken  for  Chinese  porcelain — at 
all  events,  as  regarded  design,  color,  varnish,  and  form.  For  instance,  a  vase  bears 
an  inscription  said  to  be  Pehlevi.  If  this  is  the  case,  the  vase  must  be  more  than 
rive  hundred  years  old.  But  if  Chardin  had  examined  them  more  minutely,  he 
could  not  have  failed  to  observe  an  essential  difference  in  the  clay  or  paste,  which 
is  unlike  the  kaolin,  inasmuch  as  it  is  always  more  or  less  light  and  porous. 

Persian  earthenwares  are  of  various  kinds,  although  Chardin  does  not  appear  to 
have  distinguished  them.  He  speaks  of  a  "transparent  porcelain,"  as  if  the  term 
were  generally  applicable  to  Persian  earthenware,  of  which  in  reality  the  trans- 
parent is  only  one  kind. 

There  is  another  question  to  be  examined  regarding  the  manufacture  of  earth- 
enware in  Persia.  Besides  the  fact  that  numerous  articles  of  Persian  earthenware 
are  not  only  imitations,  but  actual  copies,  of  pieces  of  Chinese  porcelain,  many  of 
them  bear  makers'  marks  in  Chinese  characters.  It  is  all  but  impossible  that  they 
could  have  been  made  in  China,  the  material  being  so  essentially  different  from  the 
kaolin  of  that  country.  Either  the  marks  were  made  by  Chinese  potters  who  had 
been  brought  to  work  in  Persia,  or  they  were  made  by  Persian  workmen  in  im- 
itation of  the  marks  on  true  Chinese  por*celain.  The  question  may  possibly  be 
solved  by  Chinese  scholars,  as  it  is  improbable  that  Chinese  characters  could  be  so 
well  imitated  by  strangers  as  to  deceive  an  expert.  Should  the  marks  prove  to  be 
really  Chinese,  and  not  forgeries,  an  explanation  of  their  existence  on  articles  made 
in  Persia  is  not  difficult  to  find.  An  intelligent  and  powerful  Persian  sovereign 
like  Shah  Abbas,  seeing  the  lucrative  trade  in  porcelain  which  was  carried  on 
with   China,  may  well  have   conceived  the  idea  of  manufacturing  it  in   his  own 


SAB  AC  EX.  Ill 


country,  and  with  that  object  have  brought  a  number  of  Chinese  workmen  to 
Persia,  just  as  our  own  government  has  acted  for  the  cultivation  of  the  tea-plant 
in  India;  or  Chinese  potters  may  have  come  to  Persia  at  some  other  time  on  their 
own  account.  For  instance,  Sir  John  Malcolm,  in  his  "  History  of  Persia"  (vol.  i.,  p. 
422),  says  that  a  hundred  families  of  Chinese  artisans  and  engineers  came  to  Persia 
with  Hulaku  Khan  about  1256  a.d.  However  that  may  be,  if  Chinese  potters 
were  ever  actually  employed  in  Persia,  they  would  naturally  imitate  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, and  in  so  doing  teach  their  Persian  fellow-workmen  to  copy  the  true  porcelain 
of  their  own  country.  Should  the  Chinese  marks,  however,  turn  out  to  be  forgeries, 
the  resemblance  of  the  Persian  earthenware  to  Chinese  porcelain  is  sufficiently  ac- 
counted for  by  the  abundance  in  Persia  of  Chinese  models,  which  were  skilfully 
imitated  by  native  workmen.  In  either  case  it  will  be  interesting  to  compare  the 
two  collections  in  the  museum,  namely,  the  Chinese  porcelain  found  in  Persia,  and 
the  earthenware  of  Persian  manufacture.  A  large  yellow  bowl  in  the  one  has 
almost  its  exact  counterpart  in  the  other. 

One  fact  appears  certain,  that  the  art  of  pottery  gradually  degenerated  in  Persia 
after  the  time  of  Shah  Abbas,  since  wliose  reign  nothing  of  much  value  has  been 
produced.  The  earthenware  of  the  present  day,  as  regards  both  workmanship  and 
material,  is  of  the  commonest  description. 

The  faience  a  reflet  (or,  with  metallic  lustre)  excepted,  the  ancient  Persian  earth- 
enware may  be  classified  as  follows :     • 

The  finest,  which  is  also  that  most  closely  resembling  the  Chinese.  This  is 
usually  of  a  white  ground,  with  designs  in  azure-blue;  the  paste  is  very  hard;  the 
designs  are  bold  and  the  lines  freely  drawn  ;  and  the  color  is  not  blended  with  the 
glaze,  which  is  generally  pure  and  brilliant.  Examples  of  this  class  are  usually 
thinner  than  of  the  others,  and  many  bear  Chinese  marks.  Some,  although  only 
a  few,  have  designs  in  relief.  In  the  catalogue  they  are  generally  designated  as 
Faience  fine.  This  kind  appears  to  be  the  one  that  has  survived  the  longest  in 
Persia,  the  earthenware  of  the  present  day  being  a  degenerated  form  of  it.  The 
gradual  decline  may  be  followed  in  the  specimens  in  the  museum,  the  excellence 
of  which  are  nearly  in  proportion  to  their  age.  In  the  objects  of  recent  date  the 
varnish  or  glaze  is  more  vitrified,  less  even,  and  easily  dissolved,  the  colors  are 
blended  in  the  varnish,  and  the  designs  are  badly  executed. 

The  second  kind  imitates  less  closely  the  Chinese  designs ;  the  objects  are 
thicker;  the  paste  is  softer  and  more  porous;  the  blue  is  brighter;  the  glaze  is 
not  so  good,  and  is  less  even ;  and  the  designs  are  not  so  well  drawn.  A  few  of 
them  have  Chinese  marks.  Of  this  thicker  kind  of  earthenware  there  are,  never- 
theless, some  specimens  of  fine  workmanship,  with  sharp-lined  designs  of  various 
colors ;  such  as  red,  lapis-lazuli,  blue,  etc.  Many  of  them  have  designs  in  relief,  or 
in  gouffrurcs,  or  channelling.  Besides  the  colors  of  the  designs,  some  of  them  are 
varnished  on  the  outside  with  a  single  color,  generally  bronze  or  lapis-lazuli  blue. 

The  third  class  is  of  a  harder  and  denser  paste  than  the  others ;  the  designs  are 


112  MODERN  POTTERY. 


of  a  blackish  color  on  a  white  ground,  but  not  so  well  executed  as  in  the  first  and 
second  kinds;  the  varnish  is  whiter,  and  appears  to  be  harder.  Tins  kind  seems  to 
have  some  affinity  to  the  stanniferous  earthenware  said  to  have  been  invented  by  the 
Arabs  in  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century,  as,  like  it,  the  paste  is  more  or 
less  'lark  in  color,  and  the  glaze  thick  and  white.  Some  of  the  objects  of  this  de- 
scription are  varnished  outside  with  a  single  color  which,  when  a  lapis-lazuli  blue,  is 
remarkably  bright.  If  the  design  includes  figures,  it  will  be  remarked  that  the  faces 
are  left  blank.  This  earthenware  was  therefore  probably  made  by  Mussulmans  of 
the  Sunni  sect,  whose  tenets  regarding  graven  and  painted  images  are  much  more 
rigid  than  those  of  the  Shiahs.  Very  few  large  objects  are  to  be  found  of  this  kind, 
and  there  are  apparently  none  with  designs  in  relief  or  with  gouffrures.  In  general, 
they  are  less  artistic  than  those  of  the  first  or  second  class.  Occasionally  they  bear 
a  mark  somewhat  like  Chinese.     In  the  catalogue  they  are  designated  Faience  dare. 

The  fourth  kind  is  a  translucid  white  earthenware,  somewhat  resembling  the 
transparent  porcelain  of  China.  It  is  generally  thin ;  many  of  the  articles  have 
gouffrures,  and  some  of  them  are  varnished  with  a  single  color  outside,  in  which 
case  they  are  a  little  thicker  than  the  others.  The  paste  appears  to  be  harder  than 
that  of  the  other  kinds.  The  examples,  which  are  all  small,  have  no  makers' 
marks.  This  kind  of  earthenware,  called  in  the  catalogue  Faience  translucide,  or 
Porcelaine  blanche  cle  Perse,  is  rather  rare. 

The  fifth  kind  is  also  translucid,  but  very  thin,  and  has  generally  lace-like  de- 
signs  a  jour.  It  is  perhaps  more  of  a  porcelain  than  a  true  earthenware.  Probably 
one  of  these  last  kinds  was  meant  by  Chardin  when  he  wrote  of  the  porcelain  of 
Karamania  as  being  transparent  and  resembling  that  of  China.  Pliny  also  men- 
tions a  substance  found  in  Karamania  of  which  murrhine  vases  were  made.  These, 
however,  were  remarkable  for  their  various  lustres,  or  reflets,  of  which  the  kind  we 
are  describing  is  devoid.     It  is  now  extremely  rare. 

The  sixth  kind  comprises  all  the  common  pottery  made  of  reddish  clay,  and 
varnished  with  a  single  color.  The  paste  is  sometimes  uncommonly  hard.  The 
most  remarkable  division  of  objects  of  this  class  are  large  dishes  and  other  vessels 
of  great  thickness  and  weight,  many  of  which  are  imitations  of  the  celadon  porce- 
lain of  China.  The  varnish,  especially  the  greens  and  bronzes,  is  often  very  fine. 
Some  of  the  pieces  have  designs  in  gouffrures  or  in  relief.  Being  of  a  commoner 
description,  this  kind  is  probably  of  older  origin  than  most  of  the  others.  In  fact, 
fragments  of  it  mixed  with  bits  of  common  unvarnished  pottery  are  found  among 
almost  all  the  ruins  of  Persia.  Such  fragments  of  unglazed  pottery  are  mostly  of 
the  rudest  and  coarsest  description,  and  evidently  date  from  the  infancy  of  the  art. 
In  the  ruins  of  Khages  many  small  pear-shaped  pots  of  this  kintl  are  found,  the 
paste  of  which  is  extremely  hard,  like  that  of  English  ginger-beer  bottles.  Similar 
pots  to  those  found  at  Rhages  have  been  discovered  in  Egypt  and  other  countries. 
From  their  general  resemblance  in  form  to  pine-cones  they  have  been  called  thi/rses, 
and  are  supposed  to  have  been  used  for  holding  mercury.     In  the  ruins  of  Rhages 


SARACEN.  113 


(a  city  whose  origin  is  unknown,  hut  of  which  mention  is  made  in  the  book  of 
Tobias,  and  which  was  undoubtedly  one  of  the  principal  cities  of  Persia  long  before 
the  Christian  era)  very  few  have  been  found  unbroken.  They  generally  have  rudely 
executed  figures  or  written  characters  in  relief.  The  Persians  have  no  tradition  as 
to  what  purpose  they  served.  There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that  they  were  made  at 
linages  itself,  as  pieces  spoiled  in  the  baking  have  been  found  in  places  which  bear 
all  the  marks  of  having  once  been  potters'  kilns.  There  are  one  or  two  of  these 
vases  in  the  museum  collection  as  well  as  some  fragments  of  the  same  ware  from 
the  ruins  of  Rhages. 

The  first  and  second  kinds  (of  the  above  classification)  before  arriving  at  the 
state  of  perfection  which  they  ultimately  attained,  and  also  the  sixth  with  its  dif- 
ferent sorts  of  common  pottery,  must  be  of  very  ancient  date.  Possibly  the  differ- 
ent kinds  were  produced  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  although  there  are  at 
present  no  records  to  prove  that  such  was  the  case. 

In  addition  to  the  above  distinctions,  there  remains  to  be  noticed  the  most  re- 
markable of  all,  namely,  the  earthenware  a  reflet  metallique,  or  with  metallic  lustre. 
The  paste  or  clay  seems  the  same  as  that  of  the  first  and  second  kinds,  but  the  cov- 
ering is  altogether  sui  generis.  It  would  seem  to  have  been  employed  for  articles 
of  luxury  only,  having  apparently  at  no  time  been  abundant,  and  being  now  very 
rare.  Unbroken  examples  are  now  hardly  ever  to  be  seen.  Fragments,  as  has  al- 
ready been  mentioned,  have  been  found  among  the  ruins  of  Rhages.  This  city  was 
several  times  destroyed  by  earthquakes  and  by  conquerors;  the  last  time  by  Hulaku 
Khan  (son  of  Genghis  Khan),  about  1250  a.d.  The  debris  now  found  among  the 
ruins  must  therefore,  at  the  very  latest,  be  of  that  date.  After  each  destruction, 
however,  the  city  appears  to  have  been  rebuilt;  not  exactly  on  the  site  of  the  pre- 
ceding, but  generally  within  it  and  on  a  smaller  scale.  Some  of  the  enceintes  can 
still  be  partially  traced.  Outside  the  later  enceintes  there  are  mounds  of  the  debris 
of  the  older  ruins.  The  contents  of  these  mounds  must  therefore  belong  to  the 
period  of  destructions  previous  to  that  by  Hulaku  Khan  ;  possibly  several  centuries 
before  the  Christian  era.  It  is  in  those  mounds  that  fragments  of  the  earthenware 
a  reflet  have  mostly  been  found,  thereby  giving  a  latitude  of  from  six  hundred  to 
upward  of  two  thousand  years  for  the  age  to  be  assigned  to  them. 

It  does  not  of  course  follow  that  all  the  articles  of  this  kind  belong  to  one  period. 
Their  manufacture  continued,  in  fact,  as  late  as  the  time  of  Shah  Abbas,  1582  a.d.,  in 
whose  reign  tiles  with  metallic  lustre  were  still  made.  Are  they  possibly  a  kind  of 
the  murrhine  vases  so  esteemed  by  the  Romans,  which  are  mentioned  by  Pliny  (as 
before  remarked)  as  made  of  a  substance  found  in  Karamania  (Kerman),  and  said  to 
have  been  chiefly  remarkable  for  their  peculiar  reflets,  <>r  lustres,  of  different  colors? 

Of  this  earthenware  a  reflet  two  kinds  are  found  in  Persia;  one,  yellow  on  a 
white  ground;  the  other,  lapis-lazuli  blue.  Of  the  former  there  are  several  varieties; 
the  yellow  being  more  or  less  dark,  and  giving  different  reflets.  The  latter  (which 
is  the  rarer  of  the  two)  is  of  one  style  only. 

8 


114  MODERN  POTTERY. 


The  wall  tiles  a  reflet  metallique  are  evidently  an  imitation  of  this  kind  of  earth- 
enware. 

There  is  a  remarkable  absence  in  Persian  earthenware  of  articles  meant  solely 
or  chiefly  for  show.  Everything  was  made  for  ordinary  use — such  as  dishes,  bowls, 
plates,  water-bottles,  etc.  This,  however,  only  shows  how  generally  diffused  were 
artistic  taste  and  good  workmanship  in  the  country.  The  same  remark  applies 
equally  to  almost  all  other  classes  of  manufacture. 

The  chief  seat  of  earthenware  manufacture  was  Kashan  and  the  neighborhood, 
including  Xain,  where  good  clay  is  still  found.  Cobalt,  the  color  chiefly  used,  is 
also  found  at  Kashan  and  Koom.  The  common  name  for  Persian  earthenware  is 
still  "  Kashi  Kari,"  or  Kashan  work. 

At  Koom  a  very  porous  clay  is  found,  of  which  the  inhabitants  make  unglazed 
water-cooling  bottles  and  drinking  vessels,  which  are  sent  to  the  surrounding  parts 
of  Persia.  Even  of  such  common  utensils  many  are  elegant  in  form,  and  orna- 
mented with  clever  designs  impressed  in  the  clay,  or  with  specks  of  color  in  imita- 
tion of  turquoises. 

Mr.  Fortnum  (in  the  South  Kensington  Catalogue)  classifies  Persian 
glazed  pottery  as  follows : 

A.  Wares  generally  highly  baked  and  sometimes  semi-translucent.     Paste  fine  and  rather  thin, 

decorated  with  ruby,  brown,  and  coppery  lustre  on  dark-blue  and  creamy -white  ground. 
Examples  in  collections  probably  date  from  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  to  the  middle 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  but  lustred  tiles  exist  of  much  earlier  time. 

B.  Wares  of  fine  paste,  highly  baked,  semi-translucent,  of  creamy  color  and  rich  clear  glaze,  run- 

ning into  tears  beneath  the  piece  of  a  pale  sea-green  tint ;  characteristic  decoration  holes 
pierced  through  the  paste  and  filled  in  with  the  transparent  glaze;  the  raised  centres, etc., 
are  bordered  with  a  chocolate-brown  or  blue  leafage  slightly  raised.  This  is  supposed  to 
be  the  Gombron  ware. 

C.  Wares  frequently  of  fine  paste  and  highly  baked  to  semi-transparency.     The  ground  white  ; 

decoration  of  plants  and  animals,  sometimes  after  the  Chinese,  in  bright  cobalt-blue,  the 
outlines  frequently  drawn  in  manganese,  some  pieces  with  reliefs;  imitation  Chinese  marks 
also  occur.     This  variety  is  perhaps  more  recent  than  the  others. 

M.  Jacquemart,  who  lias  devoted  great  attention  to  this,  as  to  all  other 
departments  of  ceramic  art,  in  his  "  Ilistoire  de  la  Ceramique,"  makes  the 
following  classification  of  Persian  wares : 

1.  La  porcelaine  email  que  nous  croyons  la  plus  ancienne. 

2.  La  porcelaine  tendre,  ou  potcrie  siliceuse  translucide. 

3.  La  faience. 

4.  La  porcelaine  dure. 

The  expressions  "  translucid,"  asemi-translllccnt,',  applied  to  pottery, 
at  once  direct  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  modern  distinction  between 
pottery  and  porcelain  is  not  satisfactory.     It  is  beyond  question  that  pot- 


SARACEN.  115 

teiy  sometimes  becomes  translucid  when  subjected  to  great  heat.  The 
nomenclature  of  the  several  wares  of  Persia,  however,  is  of  small  moment. 
The  important  question  is  whether  Persia  has  produced  true  hard-paste 
porcelain.  This  question  is  important  for  several  reasons  ;  not  only  as 
an  interesting  point  in  the  history  of  art,  but  as  bearing  on  the  question 
of  the  original  invention  of  porcelain,  and  also  on  the  transmission  of  that 
art  to  Europe.  It  will  be  seen  hereafter  that  the  first  porcelain  made  in 
Europe  was  produced  at  Venice  in  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury ;  and  the  next  successful  manufacture,  and  the  earliest  of  which  we 
have  any  attested  specimens,  was  at  Florence  towards  the  close  of  that 
century.  The  Florentine  specimens  show  clearly  the  knowledge  and  imi- 
tation of  the  Oriental  art ;  but  it  is  open  to  question  whether  the  imita- 
tion is  of  the  Chinese,  Japanese,  or  Saracen.  Italy  had,  but  a  short  time 
before  the  Venice  porcelain  was  made,  accepted  styles  of  pottery  and  the 
great  art  of  stanniferous  enamel  from  the  Saracens.  Did  Italy  also  learn 
from  them  the  art  of  making  porcelain  ? 

And  perhaps  a  more  interesting  question,  to  which  allusion  has  been 
made,  is  involved  in  what  may  be  hereafter  learned  on  this  subject.  Mes- 
opotamia had  derived  from  Egypt,  and  probably  transmitted  to  Eastern 
Asia,  the  art  of  enamelling  pottery.  The  Chinese  authorities  indicate 
that  porcelain  was  first  made  in  China  not  earlier  than  175  B.C.  But 
there  is  no  authority  for  attributing  the  invention  to  the  Chinese.  If 
hard-paste  porcelain  was  one  of  the  arts  of  Persia  four  centuries  ago,  it 
may  well  be  that  it  was  a  Persian  art  many  centuries  earlier,  a  direct  de- 
scendant of  the  Egyptian  art  of  enamelling,  which  was  received  by  the 
Persians  from  Nineveh  or  Babylon  in  the  days  of  Cyrus.  Is  it  not  quite 
as  possible,  theorizing  from  our  present  knowledge,  or  rather  onr  igno- 
rance, of  the  subject,  that  China  learned  the  art  of  making  porcelain  from 
Persia  as  that  Persia  learned  it  from  China  \ 

M.  Jacquemart  has  made  an  enthusiastic  examination  and  description 
of  the  hard-paste  porcelains  which  he  believes  to  be  of  Persian  manufact- 
ure. As  he  is  the  only  writer  who  has  attempted  this,  and  is  recognized 
as  among  the  highest  authorities,  we  condense  his  account,  referring  the 
student  for  fuller  details  to  the  "Histoire  de  la  Ceramique." 

He  divides  the  hard-paste  porcelains  of  Persia  into  the  same  classes  in 
which  some  writers  place  the  porcelains  of  China :  1.  Those  decorated  in 
blue  under  the  glaze ;  2.  Those  decorated  in  polychrome.  Under  the  sec- 
ond class  are  the  subdivisions  which  the  French  authorities  adopt  (but 
which  appear  to  us  wholly  unsatisfactory)  of  the  families  Chrysanthemo- 
pceonienne,  Green,  and  Rose.     His  descriptions  (abbreviated)  follow  : 


116  MODKHX  POTTERY. 


The  porcelain  decorated  in  blue  under  the  glaze,  the  most  common  kind,  has 
often  a  coarse  paste,  carelessly  worked,  having  warps,  checks,  sandy  or  metallic 
specks,  and  disunion  of  parts  united  by  slip.  The  enamel,  blue  in  tint,  vitreous,  is 
not  always  perfectly  spread;  but  the  striking  characteristic  is  the  mode  of  baking. 
In  China  every  piece  is  placed  on  a  support  or  circular  plate,  of  the  same  paste  of 
which  sewo'ars  are  made,  which  holds  the  foot  in  form,  and  leaves  a  slight  indented 
circle,  to  which  afterward  are  adjusted  the  wooden  or  metal  mountings.  The  Per- 
sians content  themselves  with  placing  the  vases  on  a  coarse  sand,  of  which  the 
grains  adhere  to  the  soft  paste  and  penetrate  it  deeply.  When  taken  from  the 
oven,  one  finds,  in  consequence,  many  quartzose  pybbles;  or,  if  the  piece  is  specially 
worked,  it  is  seen  that  its  base  has  been  polished  on  the  wheel,  and  thus  some  grains 
have  sprung  out,  leaving  their  empty  cavities,  and  others  worn,  variously  colored, 
form  a  sort  of  pudding-stone  with  the  porcelain. 

A  specimen  is  in  the  ordinary  form  of  the  water-bottle,  a  bulb  with  high  neck. 
On  it  are  four  medallions  in  which  are  inserted,  in  Persian,  the  lines  of  a  four-verse 
stanza,  in  which  the  poet  invites  a  drinker  to  use  the  forbidden  liquor,  and  to  forget 
in  drunkenness  the  cares  of  this  vale  of  tears.  "  Drink  wine,"  he  says.  "  Friends, 
do  not  separate  without  pain.  Give  me  the  surahai."  The  inscription  is  interest- 
ing as  containing  the  Persian  name  of  the  vase.* 

Two  similar  surahais  have  the  same  stanza,  not  on  borders,  but  in  medallions 
on  the  bulb.  Many  others,  without  legend,  pass  unseen  in  commerce,  confounded 
among  the  quantities  of  common  Oriental  porcelains  with  which  the  Dutch  flood 
the  market. 

Another  piece  is  a  large  cup  or  plate  without  the  flat  border,  of  which  the  outer 
circumference  is  engraved  under  the  glaze  with  sea-waves ;  the  porcelain  has  been 
turned  yellow  by  smoke  in  the  furnace,  and  the  cobalt-blue  has  come  out  with  a 
black  tint.  On  the  inside  are  a  long  Persian  legend,  and  many  conventionalized 
Persian  characters.  On  the  bottom  is  a  legend  in  Chinese  dating  it  Siouen-ti  pe- 
riod, Ming  Dynasty  (1426-1435).  This  is  one  of  the  dates  most  frequently  found 
on  Persian  porcelain.  After  Siouen-ti,  the  most  frequent  date  is  Kia-thsing,  then 
Wan-li.  The  Iran  porcelains  are  also  frequently  marked  underneath  with  Chinese 
symbols,  such  as  the  leaf,  the  jade  tablet,  the  pearl,  etc. 

We  will  not  stop  to  describe  the  numerous  and  often  gigantic  plates,  the  vases 
for  the  ablutions,  the  biberons,  the  narghile  receivers,  where  the  blue  painting  is 
combined  with  reliefs  in  the  paste. 

Of  the  pieces  "dipped  in  blue,"  some  are  large  ewers  without  handles,  having 
spouts  like  an  S,  the  top  opening  in  a  crescent  form  ;  others  are  covered  coffee-pots, 
and  small  pots  with  handles,  like  our  cream-pots.     The  blue  is  very  fluid,  but  wants 

*  This  form  of  water-bottle,  apparently  derived  from  the  gourd,  is  still  common  to  many  peo- 
plea  of  Asia,  Africa,  Europe, and  America.  It  is  the  Hindostanee  srai,  the  Mahratta  khoojah, the 
Egyptian  ghooleb  ;  is  found  in  Phenician  and  Greek  ancient  pottery,  in  the  modern  wares  of  many 
countries,  and  is  the  prototype  of  the  modern  wine-bottle. 


SARACEN. 


117 


purity  ;  it  would  seem  to  have  been  applied  like  a  celadon,  on  a  paste  slightly  black- 
ened. The  porcelains  of  Iran  go  back  to  an  ancient  date,  certainly  beyond  the  fif- 
teenth  century,  since  in  1426  they  were  in  all  their  perfection.  As  to  the  origin  of 
the  blue  vases,  we  can  attribute  it  to  Khorasan.  Professor  Chozdko,  long  resident 
in  Persia,  recognized  these  vases  as  the  same  called  by  the  inhabitants  porcelain  of 
Mesched.  We  attribute  to  the  same  origin  pieces  decorated  in  blue  with  glaze 
lightly  tinted  in  the  Nankin  yellow. 

Of  the  Chrysanthemo-Poeonian  family,  most  pieces  are  decorated  only  in 
iron-red  and  gold.  Among  the  most  important  are  ewers  for  ablutions.  One  in 
the  cabinet  of  M.  Sechan  (111.  84)  has  a 
neck,  encircled  by  a  ring  channelled  with 
a  double  row  of  fluting.  On  each  side 
of  the  bulb  a  palm  stands  out  in  half-re- 
lief, with  a  red  ground  in  which  are  ara- 
besques left  uncolored.  From  under  the 
palm,  branches  diverge  into  flowers,  of 
which  the  principal  flower  is  a  lily.  These 
flowers,  with  the  leaves  of  a  water-plant, 
scrolls,  etc.,  in  red  or  gold  outlined  with 
red,  form  all  the  decoration.  A  kind  of 
bottle  with  fluted  bodies,  quite  large  necks, 
a  little  open  at  top,  and  biberons,  show  the 
same  style  of  ornaments,  with  slender  stems 
and  grasses  in  gold  not  outlined. 

Specimens  of  the  Green  family  are 
many.  The  enamels  equal  the  Chinese. 
The  decorations  are  distinctively  Persian. 
Pieces  have  large  scrolls  cut  out,  resem- 
bling the  Greek  acanthus.  An  ornamental 
tulip  is  common.  The  symbolic  palm  is  frequent,  surrounded  by  a  serrated  border, 
filled  with  bouquets  resembling  the  embroidery  on  Cashmere  shawls.  Some  pieces 
have  only  the  palms  arranged  symmetrically. 

Another  class,  imitating  Chinese  work,  includes  plates,  jars,  bottles,  etc.,  deco- 
rated with  peonies,  the  fong  hoang  (of  China),  and  other  fantastic  animals,  sur- 
rounded by  rich  vegetation.  In  these  the  ground  is  covered  with  a  mosaic,  a  loz- 
enge pattern,  or  with  broken  lines,  in  iron-red. 

Another  class  has  Chinese  figures,  more  elongated  than  Chinese  work ;  the  fat 
men  are  obese ;  marked  faces  are  exaggerated  to  grimaces. 

The  green  decoration  of  Persia  is  often  associated  with  various  colored  grounds. 
The  bleu-fouettce  heightened  with  gold  covers  the  outside  of  bowls,  with  palms  and 
bouquets  on  the  inside,  and  the  palms  and  bouquets,  on  the  outside  are  on  a  fine 
Nankin  or  brown  dead-leaf  tdaze. 


84.  Persian  Porcelain  AVator-pot.     (Sechan 
Coll.) 


US  MODERN  TOTTERY. 


Pieces  of  the  Rose  family  are  the  least  numerous,  and  probably  the  latest. 
Large  stiff  stalk-  issue  from  a  kind  of  round  pot,  terminating  in  a  wide,  open  cruci- 
form flower.  Serrated  leaves  are  in  scrolls.  All  these  are  in  bright  tints.  We 
have  seen  enamels  of  this  family  on  square  tea-canisters  with  cylindric  spouts,  on  a 
tine  ewer,  and  on  gigantic  jars,  ornamented  with  the  figure  of  the  simorg.  The 
beauty  and  delicacy  of  these  show  to  what  richness  the  decoration  of  Persian  pal- 
aces mii-t  have  arrived. 

The  Chinese  white  was  imitated  in  Persia.  A  double  cup  having  the  exterior 
of  open-work  scrolls  of  flowers  has  been  engraved,  and  covered  again  with  a  creamy- 
white  glaze  A  cylindrical  candlestick,  ribbed,  with  broad  base,  has  for  sole  deco- 
ration crossed  ogives,  traced  with  the  point,  and  surmounted  by  impressed  dots. 

Celadons  are  frequent,  with  the  Chinese  sea-green  tint,  only  to  be  recognized 
by  their  style.  Some  are  simply  gadrooned  or  fluted,  others  have  ornaments  in 
relief. 

Another  variety  consists  of  pieces  "dipped  in  color,"  invariably  decorated  in 
white  engobe.  The  most  of  these  are  bottles,  or  surahais,  for  wine ;  others  with 
conical  bodies  and  a  swelling  towards  the  top  of  the  neck,  and  also  biberons,  tea- 
pots with  handles  either  high  or  in  elliptic  arcs.  On  grounds  of  beautiful  brown 
are  arabesque  borders  with  pearl  pendants;  bouquets  of  chrysanthemums  rising 
from  spheroidal  pots  spread  on  both  sides  of  the  piece,  and  are  accompanied  by  a 
kind  of  cactus  trunk,  with  alternating  prickly -pear  leaves.  This  is  done  largely 
with  a  white  paste,  applied  with  a  single  stroke,  and  where  the  strokes  cross  the 
white  is  purer  and  more  mat.  The  result  is  almost  a  modelling  which  gives  real- 
ity to  the  flowers.  The  leaves,  conical  with  three  denticulations  at  top,  take  that 
peculiar  character  of  form  which  is  less  characteristic  of  a  particular  species  than  of 
the  Persian  style  in  general,  since  wre  find  the  same  form  in  the  white  open-work 
and  also  in  the  paintings  of  the  Green  family. 

M.  Jacquemart,  whose  view  of  the  hard-paste  porcelains  of  Persia  we 
have  thus  far  condensed,  refers  to  a  rare  green  porcelain,  mentioned  in 
"The  Thousand  and  One  Nights"  by  the  name  martabani,  and  supposes 
it  the  same  referred  to  by  Chard  in,  who  describes  a  green  porcelain, 
known  in  Persia  in  his  time,  so  valued  that  a  dish  cost  five  hundred 
clowns,  and  adds  that  its  price  comes  from  the  beauty  and  fineness  of 
the  material,  which  render  it  transparent  although  of  a  thickness  greater 
than  that  of  two  crowns.  M.  Jacquemart,  however,  decides  to  assign  this 
rare  porcelain  to  Siam,  one  of  whose  ancient  states  was  Martaban. 

The  variations  of  opinion  among  the  experts  may  well  lead  the  stu- 
dent to  regard  the  question  of  the  existence  of  a  Persian  fabric  of  true 
porcelain  as  left  in  a  maze.  AH  the  writers,  however,  agree  in  assigning 
"translucent    potteries"  to   Persia,  and   translucent  pottery  is  porcelain. 


SARACEN.  119 


But  we  have  no  doubt  of  the  fact  that  true  hard-paste  porcelain  has  long 
been  made  in  Persia,  of  a  quality  equal  to  the  best  wares  of  China.  No 
other  theory  is  consistent  with  numerous  specimens  in  our  own  and  other 
collections. 

While  the  enthusiasm  of  M.  Jacquemart  may  possibly  have  led  him 
to  extend  the  scope  of  the  Persian  hard-paste  porcelain  in  some  directions, 
it  is  quite  possible  that  he  has  not  included  all  the  varieties  of  the  fabric 
which  must  be  assigned  to  that  country. 

M.  Chardrn  states  that  in  his  time  it  was  said  the  Dutch  mixed  the 
Persian  porcelains  with  the  Chinese  which  they  sent  to  Europe.  The 
early  trade  of  England,  as  well  as  that  of  Holland  in  the  Indian  seas,  gath- 
ered the  products  of  every  accessible  people  and  brought  them  to  Europe, 
where  they  passed  under  the  general  name  of  Oriental  or  Chinese  wares. 
Numerous  pieces  of  blue  and  white  porcelain  are  found  in  the  j)ossession 
of  old  families  in  this  country,  which  in  their  peculiar  glaze  are  unlike  the 
Chinese  or  Japanese. 

The  absence  of  marks  has  led  many  to  doubt  the  existence  of  Persian 
porcelains.     The  larger  portion  of  these  wares  are  without  marks,  but  the 
failure  to  collect  Persian  marks  may  be  due  to  the  want  of  observation  of 
the  more  common  wares,  on  which  they  occasionally  occur.     We  have  a 
number  of  vases  of  different  forms,  decorated  with  designs  Persian  in 
character,  and  not  Chinese  or  Japanese  in  manner,  which  we  believe  Per- 
sian.    No  marks  occur  on  them.     A  small  bowl  in  our  collection,  rudely 
decorated  with  a  few  dashes  of  cold  pale  blue,  which  is  black 
and  almost  lustrous  where  the  brush  has  left  the  color  thick,       ^\ 
has  on  the  bottom  the  unintelligible  mark  in  the  margin,       •      P       * 
in  blue  (111.  85).     The  glaze  on  this  bowl  is  peculiar,  hav-     ^    mj^T 
ing  a  green  tint  where  thick,  and  a  little  of  that  peculiar 

o        &  '  l  85. 

pearly  character,  familiar  to  those  who  know  the  modern 

wares  glazed  with  bismuth  preparations.      The  foot  is  small,  high,  and 

perpendicular  on  the  inside.     The  ware  is  fine  hard-paste  porcelain. 

Another  small  bowl  in  our  collection  is  also  rudely  decorated  in  the 

same  color,  but  with  an  indication   of  artistic  freedom   showing  that  it 

„         was  not  done  by  pattern.     The  glaze  is  identical  with  the 

~w  >yjf     last  described ;   the  foot  is  the  same,  and  the  ware  of  the 

fL  \jUs         same  fabric.     This  bowl  has  the  mark  in  the  margin  (111.  86) 

Q„  twTice,  in  the  inside  bottom,  drilled  through  the  glaze  with 

no  small  labor. 

Another  bowl  in  our  collection  is  of  fine  green  celadon  outside,  paler 

inside,  with  the  same  characteristic  foot,  and  the  same  glaze  on  the  bot- 


L20  MODERN   POTTERY 


torn.  It  has  on  the  bottom  the  mark  in  the  margin  (111.  87),  the  Chinese 
house-mark  being  in  bright  blue,  and  the  characters 
by  its  side  cut  through  the  glaze  with  the  point  of 
a  drill.  The  same  drilled  mark  is  repeated  on  the 
inside  bottom  of  the  bowl.  These  marks,  especially 
those  drilled  by  an  instrument  with  all  the  labor 
of  engraving  a  hard  stone,  may  be  Chinese  or  Jap- 
anese, but  if  so,  were  not  executed  by  one  familiar  with  the  languages 
and  modes  of  making  lines  for  their  signs. 

But  a  bowl  precisely  similar  to  the  second  above  described  in  foot, 
glaze,  color,  and  pattern  of  decoration,  better  executed,  and  a  larger  spec- 
imen,  is   in    the    collection    of   Mr.   G.   Trumbull,   of 
Hartford,  obtained  from  an  old  Connecticut  family,  in    *  *^*n\l\ 

whose  possession  it  had  been  for  some   generations.   ^^BW^-^ 
This  bowl  has  on  the  bottom  the  mark  in  the  margin  88- 

(111.  88)  in  blue,  which  is  doubtless  Persian.  There  is  no  doubt  that  all 
the  four  bowls  described  are  of  the  same  fabric.  The  specimen  last  de- 
scribed lias  a  peculiarity  in  the  decoration.  The  pattern  has  been  pricked 
out  with  a  point  before  the  color  was  laid  on. 

A  water-jar  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Robert  Hoe,  Jr.,  in  New  York, 

«-  p  is  of  the  ordinary  surahai  form,  except  that  it  has  a 

raRBBUMHf  small  handle  on  the  side  of  the  neck.     The  decora- 

™  \  tion  in  pale  blue  is  Persian  in  character,  and  on  the 

t^ hJ  bottom,  in  blue,  is  the  mark  in  the  margin  (111.  89). 

m  This  specimen  is  translucent,  a  coarse  hard -paste 

■  porcelain. 

Mr.  Hoe  has  also  a  small  covered  mug,  of  pure  white  porcelain,  enam- 
elled with  palm-leaves,  rosettes,  etc.,  in  yellow,  green,  and  red,  unquestion- 
able Persian  work,  closely  resembling  work  on  "Damas- 
cus wares."  This  cup  has  on  the  bottom  the  marks  in 
the  margin  (111.  90)  in  red.  Attention  to  the  subject 
will  probably  add  largely  to  the  list  of  marks  on  Per- 
sian hard-paste  porcelains. 

Readers  of  Arabian  tales  are  accustomed  to  meet 

90. 

with  references  to  feasts  served  on  splendid  porcelain. 
It  is  a  fact  that  the  wealthy  among  the  Arabs  have  in  their  houses  abun- 
dance of  porcelain,  much  of  which  they  treasure  with  traditions  that  it  has 
been  in  the  possession  of  their  ancestors  for  many  centuries.  Some  which 
we  have  thus  found  is  apparently  Chinese  or  Japanese.  But  other  va- 
rieties are  of  classes  which  we  hesitate  to  assign  to  any  known  fabric, 
although  giving  many  indications  of  Persian  origin. 


SARACEN.  121 


Among  the  interesting  episodes  of  travel  in  the  East,  we  recall  the  dis- 
covery and  acquisition  of  many  tine  specimens  of  pottery  and  porcelain. 

While  chatting  with  a  number  of  persons,  mostly  Arab,  in  a  shop  on 
the  Street  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre  in  Jerusalem,  the  subject  of  old  tiles 
came  up,  and  led  to  the  remark  by  an  Arab  resident  of  Jerusalem  that  he 
had  in  his  house  some  old  porcelain  which  had  been  in  the  family  many 
centuries.  Arab  statements  of  antiquity  are  not  much  to  be  relied  on, 
but  the  collector  never  hesitates  to  look  at  pottery  or  porcelain  when  he 
hears  of  it,  and  the  possessor  of  these  dishes  of  fabulous  age  readily  con- 
sented to  bring  them  at  once  for  inspection. 

They  proved  to  be  a  series  of  six  noble  dishes,  ancient,  wherever  made, 
of  exquisite  character  and  beauty.  Fifteen  inches  in  diameter,  bowl  or 
saucer-shaped — that  is,  sloping  by  a  single  curve  from  the  rim  to  the  level 
of  the  bottom — they  are  decorated  in  blue  under  the  glaze,  with  vines  hav- 
ing large  broad  leaves  and  great  clusters  of  fruit,  wandering  over  the  en- 
tire interior  surface  in  such  profusion  as  to  cover  and  nearly  conceal  the 
white  ground.  The  porcelain  is  remarkably  thin,  much  thinner  than  in 
any  Chinese  or  other  wares  of  the  size  we  have  met  with,  pure,  clear,  and 
translucent.  The  foliage  and  fruit  are  different  on  different  dishes,  but  the 
execution  the  same.  These  belong  to  a  class  of  porcelain  which  would 
be  assigned  to  China,  according  to  the  opinions  ordinarily  received,  but 
the  vines,  leaves,  and  fruit  are  wholly  dissimilar  to  any  we  have  seen  on 
Chinese  work,  the  execution  is  more  free  and  artistic — the  whole  "look" 
of  the  dishes  is  not  Eastern  Asiatic. 

The  purchase  was  accomplished  in  the  Oriental  style.  The  owner  val- 
ued them  at  a  price  equal  to  their  weight  in  gold  doubled,  and  we  offered 
a  price  equal  to  half  their  weight  in  copper.  The  day  passed  on  over 
Jerusalem,  and  the  sun  had  gone  down  into  the  sea  before  the  trade  was 
ended.  They  cost  a  price,  but  they  were  worth  it.  The  result  of  this 
commercial  transaction  was  apparent  in  Jerusalem  next  day,  and  many 
Arab  families  desired  to  turn  their  pottery  into  gold.  Among  these 
sellers  of  ancient  household  goods  was  one  who  told  us  that  he  had  great 
quantities  of  porcelain  of  brilliant  character,  which  had  been  for  four 
hundred  years  m  his  family.  "Would  we  come  and  see  it?"  "Yes,  cer- 
tainly ;"  and  we  went.  For  once  an  Arab  had  not  exaggerated.  It  was 
a  great  quantity,  and  very  brilliant  and  curious.  lie  was  of  an  old  and 
well-known  family,  and  his  house  was  of  some  pretence.  In  the  recep- 
tion-room, whose  ceiling  was  some  eighteen  feet  high,  we  found  a  high 
shelf,  running  around  the  room  near  the  ceiling,  accessible  only  by  bring- 
ing in  a  ladder.     On  this  were  arranged,  in  gleaming  rows,  large  and  small 


122  MODERN  POTTERY. 


dishes,  plates  and  bowls,  dust-covered,  but  resplendent  with  rich  enamels 
in  red,  blue,  yellow,  green,  and  gold. 

We  sat  down  on  the  diwans,  and  one  by  one  the  shining  porcelains 
were  laid  on  carpets  spread  over  the  stone  floor  of  the  room.  "Where 
did  they  come  from  2"  Neither  he  nor  his  half-dozen  friends,  who  had 
come  in  to  help  the  bargaining,  could  tell.  Only  the  master  of  the  house 
averred,  and  his  friends  sustained  him  as  solemnly  in  the  averment  as 
if  they  had  all  lived  in  Jerusalem  long  before  the  days  of  Suleiman  the 
Magnificent,  that  an  ancestor  brought  them  to  Jerusalem  more  than  four 
hundred  years  ago.  They  were  well  preserved,  in  perfect  condition,  ex- 
cept some  smaller  pieces  which  had  seen  service. 

"  Do  you  use  them  now  V 

"  Mashallah'!  No.  They  are  too  precious  antiques ;"  and  much  more 
of  the  same  sort,  to  enhance  the  value  in  the  bargaining,  which  now  be- 
gan. But  here  a  new  element  entered.  It  was  a  wily  dodge  of  the 
Arabian  to  say  that  they  belonged  to  the  women,  and  he  did  not  know  if 
they  would  sell  them  at  all.  "  Then  why  did  you  ask  us  here  ?  We  did 
not  come  to  see  your  porcelain  ;"  and  we  rose  to  go.  "  Wait,  and  I  will 
ask  the  women  if  they  will  sell  them."  Thus  began  an  odd  chaffering. 
We  could  not  select  pieces,  but  the  women  would  sell  the  whole  or  none. 
Back  and  forth  to  the  harem  rooms  trotted  the  indefatigable  bargainer, 
doing  an  unreasonable  amount  of  work  to  keep  up  the  stupid  myth  that 
a  female  party  controlled  and  directed  his  gradual  approaches  to  a  price 
per  piece  which  we  were  willing  to  give.  For  the  dicker  (in  American 
parlance)  began  by  his  bringing  in  from  the  harem  an  offer  to  sell  at  so 
much  per  piece,  an  offer  based  on  previous  purchases  which  he  knew  we 
had  made.  Some  of  the  specimens  were  worth  literally  fifty  times  the 
value  of  others;  and  as  there  were  about  a  hundred  pieces,  it  was  neces- 
sary for  us  to  make  a  rough  estimate  of  total  value,  and  constantly  multi- 
ply the  offers  per  piece  to  know  how  near  they  approached  a  fair  closing 
price,  it  was  finished  at  last,  the  day  having  been  consumed  again,  and 
only  finished  at  the  door-way  in  which  we  stood,  ready  to  depart  indig- 
nant at  his  unreasonableness,  and  followed  closely  by  his  friends  who  vo- 
ciferated their  assurances  of  the  value  and  antiquity  of  the  articles. 

It  does  not  concern  the  subject  to  relate  the  packing  of  the  quantities 
of  pottery  and  porcelain  there  and  elsewhere  obtained  in  Jerusalem,  a 
city  destitute  of  packers,  in  which  hay  is  unknown,  straw  only  found  in 
the  form  of  cut  straw  for  donkey  feed,  slippery,  glossy,  unfit  for  packing 
breakables,  and  where  even  wrapping-paper  was  then  almost  unknown. 
Cotton  cloth  and  the  cut  straw,  however,  made  soft  wrappers,  and  stout 


SARACEN.  123 


boxes  were  built  for  the  occasion.  We  saw  our  purchases  swinging  in 
pairs  of  boxes  on  the  sides  of  camels,  going  out  of  the  Jaffa  gate,  and 
watched  them  as  they  disappeared  along  the  mountain  road  leading  to  the 
sea-coast,  mentally  convinced,  and  resigned  to  the  conviction,  that  we 
should  find  them  again  only  in  fragments  at  the  end  of  their  long  land 
and  sea  journey.  But  they  came  to  New  York  in  as  perfect  order  as 
they  had  first  come  to  Jerusalem,  and  are  classed  now  in  our  collection 
among  specimens  of  Persian,  other  Saracen,  Chinese,  and  "  unknown  man- 
ufactures, probably  Asiatic." 

Among  the  articles  purchased  from  the  unseen  women  of  the  harem 
were  some  probably  of  Chinese  origin.  A  bowl  of  fine  porcelain,  deco- 
rated in  a  shining  blue  under  the  glaze,  with  groups  of  Chinese  symbols, 
is  marked  with  the  very  ancient  mark  of  two  fish  ;  and  another  bowl, 
with  less  rich  blue,  has  another  form  of  the  same  mark.  The  former  is 
a  rarely  beautiful  specimen  of  porcelain  and  color.  Two  other  large 
bowls,  of  more  doubtful  origin,  have  the  entire  ground  blue,  one  a  deep 
lapis  lazuli,  the  other  a  very  unusual  shade  of  leaden  hue.  Over  these 
grounds  run  tendrils  and  leaves,  in  faint  touches  of  gold.  Other  pieces 
are  of  doubtful  origin.  We  have  spoken  of  numbers  of  large  dishes. 
The  Oriental  custom  of  eating  meals  in  groups  around  small  tables  leads 
to  the  possession,  as  table  furniture,  of  those  large  metal  dishes,  on  which 
the  food  is  served  in  mass,  each  one  helping  himself  with  his  hands. 
The  course  ended,  another  dish  with  another  course  is  brought  in.  In 
old  families  of  wealth,  porcelain  dishes  were  used  in  place  of  metal,  and 
hence  it  results  that  we  sometimes  find  in  the  East,  what  is  at  least  very 
rare  if  at  all  known  elsewhere,  large  services  of  these  great  porcelain 
dishes.  For  the  same  reason  bowls  of  large  and  small  size  are  more  com- 
mon in  the  East  than  elsewhere,  and  services  of  bowls  on  dishes,  uniform 
in  decoration,  are  sometimes  met  with.  The  ladies  of  the  harem  sup- 
plied our  collection  with  some  admirable  specimens  of  large  dishes,  and 
bowls  with  plates,  illustrations  of  Eastern  customs  as  well  as  of  fine  ce- 
ramic art.  Nothing  can  be  more  striking  than  the  appearance  presented 
by  a  service  consisting  of  twelve  large  deep  dishes,  each  fifteen  inches  in 
diameter,  hard -paste  porcelain,  of  uniform  decoration  in  brilliant  blue, 
rose-red,  green,  and  gold.  These  colors  are  laid  on  over  the  glaze  in  a 
thick  enamel,  so  that  every  part  of  the  decoration  is  like  embossing.  In 
the  centre  of  the  dish  a  red  rose  is  surrounded  by  green  leaves,  and  blue 
and  red  flowers,  all  executed  by  laying  the  enamel  from  a  broad  brush. 
Green  leaves  are  made  by  a  single  stroke  of  the  brush,  leaving  a  heavy 
mass  of  thick  enamel.     The  interior  sloping  borders  of  the  dishes  are 


124 


MODEUN  POTTERY. 


covered  with  the  decoration  here  shown  in  outline  (111.  91)  executed  in 
the  same  enamels.     The  paste  is  good  and  very  translucent,  the  glaze  a 


>s^%^ 


smoky  white  varying  on  different  specimens,  with  somewhat  of  the  pearl- 
shell  characteristic  (produced  by  the  use  of  bismuth  in  modern  works), 
and  each  piece  has  three  support  marks. 

Besides  these,  we  obtained  about  forty  bowls,  of  various  sizes,  and  of 

three  patterns  of  decoration, 
each  bowl  on  a  correspond- 
ing dish,  the  porcelain  and 
glaze  of  the  same  sort  with 


92. 


the  large  dishes. 

The  first  series  of  bowls 
was  decorated  with  the  pat- 
tern here  shown  (111.  92),  ex- 
ecuted in  the  same  enamel  and  colors  as  the  large  dishes,  except  that  the 
pattern  is  on  a  salmon  ground, 
slightly  washed  with  gold. 
Next  was  a  series  of  bowls 
decorated  as  here  shown  (111. 
93),  in  a  superb  deep-blue  en- 
amel, with  gold  meander,  stars, 
etc.,  and  a  slight  use  of  iron-red. 
No  other  color  appears.  The 
flowers  in  the  rectangular  medallions  are  blue  and  gold,  those  in  the 
ovals  are  gold  only. 

A  third  series  of  bowls  and  dishes  had  the  decoration  here  given  (111. 
94\  the  colors  like  the  last  series,  but  the  small  flowers  in  the  diamonds 


93. 


SARACEK 


125 


are  rose-red  and  green,  and  an  interior  bordering  has  the  same  colors.    Sup- 
port marks  occur  occasionally  on  the  bottoms  of  plates,  in  all  these  series. 

The  blue  enamel  on  all  is  of 


the  same  character,  laid  on  over 
the  glaze,  to  which  it  adheres  so 
slightly  as  to  be  easily  broken  off 
in  places,  leaving  the  white  glaze 
exposed.  The  blue  is  of  the  deep- 
est bleu-de-roi  shade,  the  green  a 
vivid  apple-green,  the  red  of  two 
colors  —  one,  rose -color,  deepening 
to  lake-red  where  thickest,  the  other  a  yellowish  iron-red.  We  have  never 
met  with  this  blue  on  a  Chinese  or  Japanese  specimen. 

Damascus  Wares. — The  term  Damascus  or  Damas  wares  was  used  in 
Europe  in  the  fourteenth  and  fif- 
teenth centuries,  to  describe  va- 
rious Saracen  pottery  vases  and 
dishes.  Thus  in  1380,  in  the  in- 
ventory of  Charles  Y.  of  France, 
is  found,  ung  petit  pot  de  terre  en 
fagon  de  Damas  y  ung  petit  pot 
de  terre  d  biberon  sans  gamyson, 
de  la  faqon  de  Damas;  and  in 
1120,  in  the  inventory  of  the 
Duke  of  Burgundy,  is  mention- 
ed ung  pot  de  terre  de  Vouvrage 
de  Damas  blano  et  bleu,  garni  le 
pie,  et  couvercle,  que  est  dejaspre, 
dJ  argent  dore,  un  anse  de  serpent 
(Pargent  dore.  Mr.  Fortimm  says 
that  in  England  examples  are 
known  in  silver  mountings  of  the 
period  of  Qneen  Elizabeth. 

The  decorations  as  well  as  the 
general  character  of  the  pastes  in 
a  very  large  class  of  pottery  made 
in  various  Saracen  localities  are 
so  much  alike,  and  so  distinct  from  other  classes,  that  Mr.  Fortnum's  pro- 
posal that  the  name  Damascus  or  Damas  ware  be  revived  for  this  family 
is  an  excellent  suggestion,  which  we  adopt. 


95.  Damascus-ware  Jug,  height  18  inches. 
(Ilutli  Cull. :  Marryat.) 


L26 


MODERN  POTTERY. 


These  wares  seem  to  have  been  made  more  extensively  at  Damascus 
and  Rhodes  than  elsewhere,  but  were  probably  produced  in  many  places. 
They  have  been  commonly  called  Persian;  but  the  name  is  neither  cor- 
rect as  to  place  of  manufacture,  nor  always  correct  as  to  style  of  decora- 
tion. The  paste  varies  slightly, 
according  to  the  locality  of  man- 
ufacture, and  even  in  the  same 
localities.  It  is  usually  an  un- 
even white,  and  coarse  in  quali- 
ty, sometimes  light  and  lacking 
compactness,  sometimes  hard, 
compact,  and  sonorous.  The 
decorations  are  generally  very 
brilliant.  A  blue  or  white 
ground  is  most  frequent ;  tur- 
quoise, chocolate,  or  lilac  less 
common.  On  dishes  a  common 
and  characteristic  covering  of 
the  ground  or  of  borders  is  in 


9G.  Rhodian  Dish,  diameter  15  inches 
Marryat.) 


(Hutli  Coll. : 

small  scrolls  or  spirals,  executed 
by  a  rapid  turn  of  the  brush.  Flowers  are  much  used  in  the  decoration 
in  blue,  turquoise,  purple,  green,  yellow,  black,  and  a  brilliant  brick-red. 
Hyacinths  and  carnations  are  the  most  frequent  flowers  ;  but  tulips,  roses, 
and  a  few  smaller  flowers  are  common.  The  more  ordinary  forms  are 
dishes,  bowls,  bottles,  and  jugs  for  water.  Bowls  were  made  on  feet. 
Water-jugs  of  graceful  shapes,  with  high  necks,  and  with  arched  handles, 
and  lamps  for  mosques,  with  central  vases,  are  among  the  most  interest- 
ing as  well  as  the  oldest  known  specimens. 

An  ( >riental  symbolism,  the  origin  of  which  may  be  in  one  of  a  half- 
dozen  reasons,  no  one  of  which  is  certain,  has  made  the  egg  a  favorite  or- 
nament for  the  interior  of  Christian  churches  and  Mohammedan  mosques 
in  the  East.  Ostrich  eggs  abound,  plain  and  decorated  with  paintings, 
hanging  in  all  parts  of  the  buildings.  This  is  a  very  ancient  custom,  and 
led,  at  an  early  period,  to  the  imitation  of  these  eggs  in  pottery  with 
white  enamel.  M.  Jacquemart  seems  to  regard  some  of  these  as  among 
the  earliest  known  specimens  of  Saracen  pottery.  A  group  of  these  eggs 
formed  the  hanging  ornaments  of  a  lamp  in  the  Church  of  the  Nativity 
at  Bethlehem,  where  we  chanced  to  pass  a  night  just  when  this  ancient 
luminary  broke  the  rusted  chain  by  which  it  had  hung,  uncleaned,  for  cen- 
turies, and  fell  to  the  stone  floor.     The  eggs  were  fragile,  but  four  of  them 


S  ABAC  EX. 


127 


97.  Pottery  Egg,  from  the 
Church  of  the  Nativity  at 
Bethlehem.     (T.-P.  Coll.) 


sustained  the  shock,  and,  being  no  longer  of  use  to  the  lamp,  naturally 
found  their  way  to  our  collection.  One  of  these  has  a  clear,  pure  white 
glaze,  under  which  are  decorations  in  pale -blue 
arabesques.  The  others  are  of  coarse  paste,  yellow- 
ish glaze,  with  decorations  of  rude  cherubs'  heads, 
and  crosses  of  the  Jerusalem  pattern,  painted  in 
yellow,  blue,  and  green. 

Many  of  the  dishes  of  this  ware,  especially  some 
which  are  decorated  with  the  brilliant  red,  are  in  all 
respects  like  tiles  which  we  have  found  in  Cairo. 
A  special  resemblance  consists  in  the  use  of  the 
red,  which  is  always  laid  on  so  thick  as  to  produce 
a  decided  relief  or  embossed  effect ;  and  from  this 
it  occurs,  in  many  pieces  which  have  been  rubbed 
in  use  or  exposure,  that  the  glaze  is  broken  over  the 
red,  and  the  color  escapes  or  can  be  scraped  out  in  powder.  This  red  is 
one  of  the  most  brilliant  and  effective  colors  found  in  ceramic  art.  It 
appears  remarkably  strong  and  rich  on  a  dish  in  our  collection  whose  dec- 
oration consists  of  long,  narrow,  waving  leaves,  half  red,  half  green,  di- 
verging at  right  angles  from  centres,  and  forming  open  squares  on  the 
dish,  in  which  are  balls  of  dark  blue,  a  red  and  a  green  spot  on  each. 

The  tiles  from  Cairo  decorated  in  these  colors,  and  resembling  the 
dishes,  are  more  fragile  than  any  others.  In  two  cases,  containing  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  tiles,  sent  from  Alexandria  to  New  York,  which  were  ship- 
wrecked on  the  way,  while  other  varieties  suffered  some  breakage,  twenty 
of  this  class  were  reduced  to  small  fragments,  and  hardly  one  escaped  to- 
tal destruction. 

Mr.  Fortnum  is  of  opinion  that  the  wares  made  at  Damascus  may  be 
known  by  "  evenness  of  surface  and  rich  glaze,  with  subdued  but  harmo- 
nious coloring,  certain  tones  of  which  are  peculiar  to  this  variety,  as  a 
dull  lilac  or  purple  replacing  the  embossed  so  conspicuous  on  the  Rho- 
dian,  and  used  against  blue,  which  is  of  two  or  three  shades,  the  turquoise 
being  frequently  placed  against  the  darker  tone ;  a  sage  green  is  also  char- 
acteristic. The  dishes  of  this  variety  usually  have  the  outer  edge  shaped 
in  alternating  ogee."  We  find  this  opinion  confirmed  by  the  color  deco- 
rations of  tiles  found  at  Damascus. 

The  island  of  Rhodes  was  the  seat  of  ancient  Greek  potteries,  and  in 
the  early  tombs  of  Kameiros  specimens  of  glazed  ware  somewhat  resem- 
bling the  Egyptian  have  been  found.  Possibly  glazed  wares  were  made 
there  continuously  down  to  modern  times.      In  the  sixth  century,  the 


ll'S 


MODERN  POTTERY. 


98.  Rhodian  Dish.     Dec-oration  in  red,  green, 
blue,  etc.     (T.-P.  Coll.) 


church  dedicated  t<»  the   Divine  Wisdom,  now  the  Mosque  of  St.  Sophia, 

in  Constantinople,  was  erected  by 
Justinian  (531-538  a.d.).  The  writ- 
ers of  Byzantine  history  and  others 
describing  it  at  the  time  dwell  more 
or  less  on  the  luminous  splendor  of 
the  decorations  of  the  dome,  which 
was  probably  in  mosaic  work.  One 
speaks  of  "  vitreo  lapides  fulvo  auro 
supertectos."  "  Crystal  made  with 
lire"  is  an  expression  used  by  Paul 
Silentiarius,  who  wrote  a  poetic  de- 
scription of  the  church  at  the  time 
of  its  erection ;  and  other  writers  use 
expressions  in  regard  to  some  of  the 
work  which  may  indicate  the  use 
of  enamelled  tiles.'  An  anonymous 
Greek  writer  says  of  the  dome,  KaTi\pvawere  tu  o/jofya  tZ,  vtXwou  \pvauv 
Xa/nTTfioraTa,  which  Du  Cange,  in  his  commentary  on  Paul  Silentiarius 
cites,  and  translates  tesselis  vitreis  inauratis,  distinguishing  them  from 
mosaic.  The  editor  of  "Murray's  Hand-book,"  describing  the  mosque, 
gives  Paul  Silentiarius  as  authority  for  this  account:  "The  tiles  on  the 
arch  of  the  cupolas,  which  astonished  every  eye  by  their  extraordinary 
lightness  and  boldness,  were  prepared  at  Rhodes  of  a  particularly  light 
clay,  so  that  twelve  of  them  did  not  weigh  more  than  the  weight  of  one 
ordinary  tile.  These  chalk- white  tiles  bore  the  inscription,  lGod  has 
founded  if,  and  it  will  not  be  overthrown.  God  will  swpport  it  in  the 
blush  of  the  dawn?  When  the  building  of  the  cupolas  at  length  began, 
the  tiles  were  laid  by  twelves,  and  after  each  layer  of  twelve  tiles  relics 
were  built  in,  while  the  priests  sang  hymns  and  prayers  for  the  dura- 
bility of  the  edifice  and  the  prosperity  of  the  church."  This  minute 
account  of  the  tiles  we  do  not  find  in  the  poem  of  Silentiarius;  but 
if  it  be  from  any  writer  of  the  period,  it  would  establish  conclusively 
the  making  of  painted  and  possibly  enamelled  tiles  at  Rhodes  in  the  sixth 
century. 

This  is  one  of  the  few  indications  which  we  possess  of  the  use  of 
glazed  potteries  at  this  early  period.  It  is  not  improbable  that  Rhodes 
continued  the  manufacture  without  interruption  down  to  modern  times. 
There  are  many  ancient  tiles  in  Eastern  buildings  on  the  Mediterranean 
shores  which  may  have  been  made  here,  and  the  faience  eegs,  with  Chris- 


SARACEN.  129 


tian  symbols  in  the  decoration,  found  in  old  churches  (such  as  those  which 
we  obtained  in  Bethlehem)  may  possibly  be  of  the  early  Rhodian  fabric. 
In  the  seventh  century  (61G  a.d.),  the  Persians,  under  Chosroes,  captured 
Rhodes,  and  held  it  a  few  years.  It  remained  under  the  Eastern  Empire 
after  that  for  a  brief  period,  was  occupied  by  the  Saracens  in  the  seventh 
century,  and  thereafter  had  varying  fortunes  alternately  under  the  Greek 
Empire  and  the  Genoese,  and  the  princes  of  Gualla,  who,  having  been  its 
governors  under  various  powers,  asserted  and  maintained  an  independent 
sovereignty.  In  1306,  the  Knights  of  St.  John,  expelled  from  Acre, 
and  having  the  form  of  a  grant  from  the  Emperor  Emmanuel,  besieged 
and  took  Rhodes,  where  they  established  themselves  until  the  memorable 
siege  and  conquest,  in  1522,  by  the  Turks  under  Suleiman  II.  Potteries 
made  at  Lindus  during  the  occupation  of  the  knights  are  known,  as  they 
bear  the  cross  of  the  order.  A  tradition  says  that  some  Persian  potters 
on  their  way  to  Venice  were  wrecked  on  the  island.  Another  suggestion 
is  that  the  knights  brought  Persian  potters  with  them  from  Acre,  and 
established  a  pottery.  The  more  probable  theory  is  that  from  the  time 
of  Justinian  potteries  had  existed,  and  that  during  the  Saracen  occupa- 
tion, if  not  before,  Persian  styles  were  introduced. 

Mr.  Salzman  found  remains  of  old  Saracen  furnaces  at  Lindus ;  hence 
the  Rhodian  potteries  have  been  sometimes  called  "  Lindus  ware."  The 
decorations  on  Damascus  ware  which  have  been  described  are  character- 
istic of  the  Rhodian  fabrics,  especially  the  brilliant  red,  which  forms 
almost  a  relief,  and  the  scroll  borders.  Ships,  birds,  animals,  and  shields 
of  arms  occur. 

A  very  large  number  of  specimens  of  all  kinds  of  Damascus  ware 
(excepting  tiles)  now  in  European  collections  have  been  found  in  Italy, 
where  the  Saracen  potters  had  their  best  market.  Italian  palaces  were 
furnished  by  them  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  and  perhaps 
at  an  earlier  date.  From  this  fact,  as  we  shall  hereafter  see,  arose  the 
splendor  of  ceramic  art  in  Italy  in  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
Several  fine  dishes  in  the  Trumbull -Prime  collection,  one  of  which  is 
illustrated  (98),  were  found  in  an  Arab  tomb  at  Cyprus,  accidentally 
opened  by  General  Di  Cesnola  while  excavating  at  Dali.  The  circum- 
stance is  unusual. 

Other  varieties  of  Saracen  wares,  exceedingly  rare,  and  some  known 
only  in  fragments,  cannot  be  assigned  to  any  special  locality.  Dishes  and 
vases  lustred  in  gold  and  copper  are  now  very  generally  supposed  to  be 
of  the  fabrics  of  Spain,  the  Majorcan  islands,  or  Sicily  under  the  Moors; 
but  this  is  far  from  being  certain.     On  the  contrary,  it  is  possible  and 

9 


130  MODERN  POTTEItT. 


probable  that  wherever  there  were  extensive  potteries,  there  the  lustred 
wares  were  made. 

The  extended  commercial  facilities  of  the  Saracens  may  have  dis- 
tributed the  products  of  Valencia,  Malaga,  and  Majorca  throughout  the 
East;  but  from  the  vast  quantities  of  old  Saracen  pottery  of  all  kinds 
which  we  have  found  buried  deep  in  the  mounds  around  Cairo,  and  on 
the  slopes  around  Jerusalem,  we  are  inclined  to  believe  that  many  varie- 
ties of  ware  were  made  in  the  same  localities. 

The  mounds  around  Cairo  have  furnished  us  with  many  specimens. 
These  were  not  found  in  any  one  locality  more  than  in  another.  Trav- 
ellers are  familiar  with  the  vast  heaps  which  surround  all  Eastern  cities, 
and  which  are  composed  largely  of  broken  pottery,  in  such  quantities  that 
one  would  think  there  had  been  enough  pottery  broken  in  one  city  to 
supply  the  world  for  centuries.  On  the  north,  east,  and  south  sides  of 
Cairo  these  fragments  lie  in  unlimited  quantity.  The  only  special  lo- 
cality which  we  have  noted  was  on  the  south  side,  where  in  1869  a  new 
carriage-road  had  been  cut  nearly  on  a  level  grade  from  the  outskirts  of 
the  city  through  a  long  succession  of  pottery  mounds,  which  stood  on  both 
sides  of  the  road  to  a  height  sometimes  reaching  thirty  feet.  Here,  in  the 
lowest  level  of  the  mounds,  we  took  out  fragments  of  pottery,  which  may 
fairly  be  supposed  the  broken  wares  of  Cairo  thrown  there  when  the 
mounds  had  not  yet  risen  much  above  the  level  of  the  city  within  the 
walls.  Among  these  was  a  piece  of  the  side  of  a  large  heavy  vase,  very 
strong,  hard  pottery,  black  throughout,  three  -  eighths  of  an  inch  thick, 
covered  with  a  gleaming  stone -colored  enamel,  green,  yellow,  and  gray 
mingled  in  soft  tones,  over  which  are  arabesques,  leaves,  etc.,  in  deep 
brown.  The  glaze  is  pure  and  fine  over  all.  Another  fragment,  part  of 
a  bowl  or  dish,  is  of  red  pottery,  close  and  compact  paste,  covered  with  a 
delicate  yellow,  or  straw-colored  enamel,  on  which  are  Arabic  letters,  ad- 
mirably executed,  two  inches  long,  outlined  in  brown  and  filled  with 
white.  This  is  a  relic  of  a  very  beautiful  piece  of  Saracen  work.  Vari- 
ous fragments  of  dishes  and  the  foot  of  one  vase  are  of  very  light  soft 
pottery,  reddish- white  paste,  covered  with  white  enamel,  on  which  are 
leaves  and  arabesques  in  gold  lustre,  in  the  Hispano-Moresque  style.  A 
fragment  of  coarse  red  pottery  with  a  brownish-black  glaze  looks  like  the 
bottom  of  a  modern  crock,  with  a  device  in  green  and  white  mingled,  on 
the  centre  of  the  interior.  Many  fragments  were  of  hard  pottery,  glazed 
in  yellow. 

A  remarkable  fragment,  found  with  these,  is  evidently  the  remains  of 
a  lamp  of  ancient  pattern,  like  a  small  cream-pitcher  with  open  top,  the 


SARACEX. 


131 


pinched  nose  black  with  smoke.     This  is  of  soft  pottery,  covered  with  a 
rich  and  brilliant  green  enamel  such  as  we  have  on  old  Damascus  tiles. 

Without  further  enumerating  the  varieties  of  pottery  in  the  mounds 
around  Cairo,  enough  has  been  said  to  show  the  extent  to  which  the  man- 
ufacture must  have  been  carried  on  in  that  place,  or  the  wide-spread  com- 
merce of  the  Saracens  which  supplied  the  East  with  the  fictile  products 
of  the  "West.  It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  in  the  one  spot  where 
we  gathered  the  specimens  referred  to  there  were  cart-loads  of  similar 
fragments. 

Northern  Africa. — The  old  Saracen  art,  which  had  travelled  along 
the  north  coast  of  Africa  and 
crossed  into  Spain,  lingered  along 
its  line  of  travel.  Potteries  have 
been  made  in  Tunis,  Algiers,  and 
all  the  Mohgrabbin  settlements 
without  interruption  down  to  the 
present  time,  retaining  in  their 
styles  and  decorations  some  of  the 
old  beauty  of  color ;  vases,  bowls, 
dishes,  water-bottles,  and  other 
articles,  at  a  distance  present  a 
brilliant  appearance,  produced  by 
a  rude  decoration,  in  the  style 
shown  in  111.  99.  It  is  impos- 
sible to  determine  the  compar- 
ative age  of  these  wares.  Some 
are  quite  modern,  others  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  paste  is  coarse 
and  very  heavy,  apparently  a  stone-ware,  the  glaze  generally  a  cold  gray. 
Check,  diamond,  circular,  and  arabesque  patterns  are  colored  in  green  and 
yellow  under  the  glaze,  and,  after  baking,  a  bright-red  pigment  is  used, 
in  lines,  spots,  and  large  blotches,  to  give  a  final  effect  of  brilliancy,  which 
is  successful,  but  not  permanent,  as  this  color  wears  off.  Tiles  are  made 
for  architectural  purposes;  but  we  have  found  that  the  tiles  in  palaces 
in  Tunis  are  in  some  cases  of  old  Italian  fabric,  made  in  styles  to  suit 
the  Arab  taste. 

Egypt  produces  a  great  abundance  of  common  unglazed  potteries,  and 
some  in  bright-red  clay,  others  black,  which  are  polished  up  to  the  lustre 
of  the  old  Greek  wares.  All  along  the  track  of  the  Arabic  civilization  in 
Africa,  and  even  among  the  savages  with  whom  the  Arabs  have  traded, 
unglazed  pottery  is  made  in  good  forms  learned  from  the  Arabs.      A 


99.  Pottery  of  the  Mohgrabbin.     (T.-P.  Coll.) 


L32 


MODEL'X  rOTTERY. 


water-jar  from  Ugogo,  and  a  group  of  pottery  from  TIjiji,  for  which  we 

are  indebted  to  Cameron's  u  Across  Africa," 
will  serve  to  illustrate  modern  styles  in  the 
negro  country. 

Ciianak-kalesi  ("  the  pottery  castle")  is  the 
name  given  by  the  Turks  to  the  "Castle  of 
Asia"  on  the  bank  of  the  Dardanelles.  The 
name  is  derived  from  the  manufacture  of  fai- 
ence here,  which  has  been  celebrated  for  a  long 
time.  Travellers  are  familiar  with  the  gro- 
tesque water -jars,  brilliantly  colored  and  well 
glazed,  which  are  brought  on  board  steamers  touching  here,  for  sale  to 
passengers. 

For  how  long  a  time  the  manufacture  has  been  carried  on  is  not 
known ;  but  wares  of  a  peculiar  kind  have  been  made  since  the  last  cen- 
tury, and  it  is  not  impossible  that  among  the  superb  tiles  which  ornament 
the  mosques  in  Constantinople  some  were  made  on  the  Dardanelles.  In 
the  year  1856  the  venerable  sheikh  of  the  Mosque  of  Omar,  in  Jerusalem, 
told  us  that  it  was  then  determined  to  repair  the  Dome  of  the  Rock,  and 
that  new  tiles  were  to  be  made  at  Chanak-kalesi,  where  he  believed  many 
of  the  old  tiles  were  made.  The  fabrics  are  varied  in  form,  supplying 
the  domestic  purposes  of  the  Turks  in  many  of  the  Mediterranean  cities. 


100.  Ugogo  Pottery.     (Central 
Africa.) 


101.  Ujiji  Pottery.      (Central  Africa.) 

Water-jugs,  bowls,  perfume-burners,  ink-holders,  cups  and  saucers  in  Euro- 
pean style,  and  other  objects  are  decorated  variously.  Specimens  of  the 
modem  fabrics  in  our  collection  are  of  good  pottery,  coarsely  glazed,  col- 
ored unevenly  in  turquoise,  purple,  deep  green,  and  yellow.     White  cups 


SARACEX. 


133 


102.  Water -jug,  in  yellow. 
Height  18  inches.  (From 
Chanak-kalesi.     T.-P.Coll.) 


and  saucers  have  rudely  painted  flowers,  with  leaves  and  border  lines  in 
a  good  pink  copper  lustre.     This  is  the  last  of  the  Saracen  lustres. 

The  grotesque  water-jars  seem  to  have  been  a 
speciality  of  the  pottery  of  Chanak-kalesi  for  a 
long  time.  An  ancient  specimen  exhibited  at 
Philadelphia  in  IS 76,  in  the  Egyptian  depart- 
ment, elaborate  and  not  unartistic  in  style,  was 
possibly  of  the  sixteenth  or  early  seventeenth  cen- 
tury. One  in  our  collection,  yellow,  with  splashes 
of  green,  a  bird  and  flowers  in  relief,  with  leaves 
painted  in  lustre  after  baking  (111.  102),  is  perhaps 
of  the  last  century.  Another  in  our  collection 
has  a  rich  dark -green  glaze,  with  rosettes,  etc., 
in  lustred  reliefs,  and  another  is  gayly  decorated 
with  horizontal  bands  of  red,  crossed  by  perpen- 
dicular stripes  of  green  and  black,  on  a  rich  yel- 
low ground  :  the  neck  is  in  tortoise-shell.  These 
wares,  still  produced,  are  the  latest  representatives 
of  that  art  which  has  left  throughout  the  East 
such  abundant  relics  of  its  splendor. 

IIispano- Moresque  Pottery.  —  In  the  beginning  of  the  eighth  cen- 
tury (712  a.d.),  the  Arabian  flood  reached  Spain  and  swept  over  it.  In 
756  a.d.  Abd-er-Rhama,  having  expelled  his  Mohammedan  predecessors, 
established  his  caliphate  at  Cordova.  The  wall  tiles  of  the  mosque  at  this 
place  are  lasting  examples  of  the  art  of  the  Saracens.  In  1090  the  Moors 
accomplished  the  conquest  of  Spain,  but  we  have  no  relics  of  their  art  in 
pottery  prior  to  the  building  of  the  Aihambra,  decorated  with  tiles  at 
Granada  in  1273.  With  this  date  commences  the  series  of  works  now 
styled  Ilispano-Moresque.  The  Vase  of  the  Aihambra,  so  called  because 
found  under  the  pavement  of  that  structure,  is  four  feet  three  inches  ln<j;li 
— of  pottery,  white  ground  with  ornaments  in  two  shades  of  blue  and  in 
gold  or  copper  lustre  (111.  103).  Its  date  of  manufacture  is  supposed  to 
be  about  1320. 

The  discovery  of  this  pottery  as  a  manufacture  of  Spain  is  quite  re- 
cent, and  due  to  M.  Itiocreux,  the  coadjutor  of  Brongniart  at  Sevres. 
Large  quantities  of  the  ware,  j^reviously  classed  with  Italian  majolica,  and 
found  in  Italy,  are  now  placed  in  the  Ilispano-Moresque  group.  Mr.  J. 
C.  Robinson,  of  the  South  Kensington  Museum,  an  able  authority,  consid- 
ers those  pieces  to  be  of  the  earlier  period  which  have  decoration  in  the 
paler  yellow  lustre,  with  interlacings  and  other  ornaments  in  manganese 


1 34 


MODERN  POTTERY. 


and  blue — animals,  coats  of  arms,  etc. — those  having  the  ornaments  in  the 
pale-yellow  lustre  only,  without  color,  to  be  nearly  of  equal  date,  and  also 

some  of  the  darker  copper  lustre  pieces 
with  shields  of  arms:  he  places  at  a  later  pe- 
riod those  with  glaring  copper  lustre.  The 
specimens  decorated  with  dark  copper  lustre 
in  diaper  and  scroll  patterns  without  color 
are  probably  not  Moorish,  but  Spanish  work 
of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries. 
The  date  of  the  Ilispano-Moresque  pot- 
tery is  from  the  fourteenth  to  the  beginning 
of  the  seventeenth  century.  As  the  wares 
are  made  with  stanniferous  enamel,  this  Sar- 
acen work  in  Spain  antedates  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  art  into  Italy  by  more  than  a 
century.  The  patterns  of  the  decoration 
are  varied,  and  curious  rather  than  beau- 
tiful. Small  ivy  or  briony  leaves,  in  blue 
or  in  lustre,  arranged  in  circles,  bands,  ara- 
besques, covering  the  entire  surface  of  the 
piece,  or  otherwise  disposed,  diaper  patterns 
in  lustre  or  color,  scrolls  of  various  sizes,  are 
common  ornaments  of  the  grounds.  In  the 
centres  of  dishes  are  shields  of  arms,  ani- 
mals, flowers,  and  other  designs.  Christian 
emblems  and  inscriptions  are  found.  Large 
vases  are  known,  of  similar  character  to  the  Alhambra  vase,  and  bowls, 
drug-pots,  and  dishes. 

It  is  with  great  diffidence  that  we  venture  to  express  a  doubt  whether 
there!  is  not  danger  that  many  articles  may  be  assigned  to  the  fabric  of 
the  Moors  in  Spain  which  were  made  elsewhere.  The  Saracen  art  is  so 
much  alike,  wherever  practised,  that  no  one  style  of  decoration  can  be 
deemed  characteristic  of  a  locality.  The  large  quantities  of  fragments  of 
pottery,  decorated  in  gold  lustre,  with  ivy  leaves  and  other  patterns,  which 
we  have  found  at  great  depth  in  the  mounds  around  Cairo,  lead  to  the 
belief  that  these  wares  were  made  also  in  Egypt.  It  is  possible  that  they 
were  made  in  various  other  localities,  as  well  as  in  Spain. 

Ibn-Batoutah,  writing  about  1350,  describes  a  visit  to  Granada  and 
Malaga.  He  says  of  the  latter,  "At  this  place  is  manufactured  the  beau- 
tiful gilded  pottery  or  porcelain  which  is  exported  to   the  most  distant 


103.  Vase  of  the  Alhambra. 


SARACEN. 


135 


countries."  This  factory  is  mentioned  in  1517,  but  no  later.  It  is  prob- 
able that  the  Alhanibra  vase  and  its  lost  companion,  which  was  in  exist- 
ence in  1761,  as  well  as  the  fine  vase  in  the  South  Kensington  collection, 
and  three  in  the  Museum  at  Bologna,  are  all  of  the  fabric  of  Malaga. 
The  Alhanibra  vase  has  been  copied  at  Sevres,  and  by  a  modern  French 
maker  of  faience,  who  also  produces  good  copies  of  various  Saracen  work. 
The  pottery  of  Malaga  is  supposed  to  be  the  most  ancient  of  the  Hispano- 
Moresque  work.  After  it  in  order  of  time  is  placed  the  fabric  of  Majorca, 
interesting  as  giving  the  name  majolica  to  the  lustred  and  other  wares  of 


Italy 


lul.  Ilispano-Moresque  Dish:  Arms  of  Castile  and  Leon  and  Arragon.     (British  Museum.) 

Saguntum,  near  Valencia,  was  celebrated  in  Roman  times  for  red 
ware.  It  was  the  seat  of  extensive  potteries.  There  is  no  known  re- 
lation between  these  and  the  works  established  by  the  Saracens  in  the 
eighth  century,  or  their  successors,  the  Moors.  In  1230,  James  I.  of  Ar- 
ragon granted  a  special  charter  for  making  pottery  to  the  Saracens  of 
Xativa,  now  San  Felipe,  which  mentions  vases,  domestic  pottery,  and 
rajolas — another  name  for  wall  tiles.     M.  Daviller  thinks  lustred  pottery 


130 


MODERN  POTTERY. 


was  introduced  from  Malaga,  not  earlier  than  the  fifteenth  century.  The 
Valencia  potteries  were  probably  the  most  important  and  extensive  in 
Spain.  Marineo  Sieulo,  in  1517,  says  the  faience  of  Valencia  was  the 
most  esteemed  of  all  in  Spain. 

It  is  not  quite  certain  what  wares  are  to  be  assigned  to  Valencia. 
The  special  veneration  there  paid  to  St.  John  the  Evangelist,  and  the  use 
there,  in  processions,  of  the  eagle,  with  the  first  words  of  his  Gospel  on 
a  banner,  "In  principio  erat  Verbum  et  Verbum  erat  apud  Deum,"  has 
led  to  the  supposition  that  Hispano-Moresque  wares,  several  specimens  of 
which  exist  bearing  the  eagle  and  this  inscription,  are  of  the  Valencia 
fabric     In  the  British  Museum  is  a  plate,  painted  with  an  antelope  and 

a  Moorish  ornament  in  blue,  and  the  words 
Senta  Catalina  Guabda  Nos,  also  sup- 
posed to  be  of  this  fabric.  Pottery  wares 
were  made  here  till  the  early  part  of  the 
present  century,  but  the  Hispano-Moresque 
character  is  not  found  later  than  the  early 
part  of  the  seventeenth.  Copper  lustred 
wares  were  made  in  1780  at  Manises,  and 
M.  Davillier  found  recently  the  last  repre- 
sentative of  the  fabric  in  an  innkeeper  at 
Manises,  who,  with  his  wife  assisting,  had  a 
wheel  and  small  furnace,  and  produced  lus- 
tred pottery. 

There  were  other  places  in  Spain  where 
the  Saracen  pottery  was  made.     Barcelona 
faience   is   mentioned  in  1491.      Marineo 
Sieulo  is  authority  for  potteries  at  Murcia, 
Morviedro,  Toledo,  Talavera,  and   one   or 
two  other  places.     The  wares  of  these  sev- 
eral places  are  not  distinguishable. 
Marks   of  makers   or  places  of  fabric  are   almost  unknown  on  the 
Hi>pano-Moresque  pottery.     Two  plates  are  known  with  daubs  of  color 
on  the  bottoms,  which  are  as  likely  to  have  been  unmeaning  dashes  of 
the  painter's  brush  as  anything  else,  and  are  of  no  importance. 

Sicily. — Two  classes  of  ware,  of  which  specimens  have  been  found  in 
Sicily,  are  named  Siculo-Aeabian  and  Siculo-Moeesque.  The  latter  are 
found  at  Calata-Girone,  and  are  ascribed  to  Moorish  potters,  as  distinct 
from  Arabian  potters,  a  distinction  which  is  without  sufficient  foundation, 
and  impossible  in  examining  the  masses  of  broken  pottery  surrounding 


L05.  Bispano  -  Moresque  Vase  (Valen- 
cia), with  Christian  Inscriptions. 


SARACEN. 


137 


Siculo- Arabian  Vase.     (Castellani  Coll. 
The  ware  may  be 


Eastern  cities,  where  all  varieties  are  found  together.  The  Calata-Girone 
wares  have  a  stanniferous  enamel  surface,  with  copper-lustre  ornamenta- 
tions. The  enamel  is  remarkably  fine,  the  lustre  patterns  are  small  and 
richly  used,  and  specimens  are  rare.  Mr.  Robinson  thinks  that  a  fine 
specimen,  with  deep -blue  enamel,  in 
the  South  Kensington  Museum,  is  an 
Italian  imitation  of  the  old  Persian  or 
Damascus  wares. 

The  pottery  classed  as  Siculo-Ara- 
bian  is  similar  in  paste  to  the  Rhodian 
wares,  and  is  decorated  on  the  paste  in 
blue  outlined  with  black,  or  with  lus- 
tre over  the  enamel  somewhat  differ- 
ent from  either  the  gold  or  the  cop- 
per lustre  of  the  Hispano- Moresque. 
We  have  found  fragments  of  similar 
pottery  in  the  mounds  around  Cairo. 
The  Sicilian  origin  of  both  these  va- 
rieties is  doubtful.  Arabic  inscrip- 
tions, generally  illegible,  occur  on  the  Siculo-Arabian. 
an  ancient  fabric  of  Eastern  potteries. 

Majorca. — The  Balearic  islands  are  interesting  as  the  seat  of  ancient 
Saracen  potteries,  and  as  having  given  to  the  Italian  language  the  word 
maiolica,  as  descriptive  of  some  sort  of  pottery. 

This  derivation  of  the  word  majolica  is  given  by  the  elder  Scaliger; 
and  his  remarks  in  connection  with  the  subject  are  not  only  interesting 
and  amusing,  but  somewhat  puzzling  as  to  what  sort  of  ware  he  supposed 
to  be  majolica. 

Jerome  Cardan  ("De  Subtilitate ;"  Nuremberg,  1550),  writing  of  the 
clay  of  Waldeburg,  had  said : 

Videntur  enim  figulorum  vasorum  esse  hae  quinque  laudes,  ut  sint  levissiraa,  ut  non  sorbeant, 
ut  non  exudent,  ut  non  facile  frangantur,  ut  ignibus  resistant ; 

and,  proceeding  with  a  short  discussion  of  the  vasa  murrhma,  after  quot- 
ing Pliny's  description,  adds : 

Ergo  quis  non  videt  figulina  ba?c  esse  et  ejus  generis  quod  (ut  dixi)  hodie  Procellanas  solemus 
appellare.  Constant  enim  et  haec,  ex  succo  quodam  sub  terra  densato,  et  ex  Oriente  vehun- 
tur.  *  *  *  Nunc  longo  Indise  tractu  fiunt  maxime  apud  Chinam :  hi  olim  Seres,  ut  alibi  dictum 
est.  Fieri  dicuntur  ex  conchiliorum  atque  ovorum  corticibus:  sepeliunturque  constanti  fama  in 
80  vel  100  annos  quasi  in  hsereditatum  loco.  Inde  eruta  obducuntur  vitro  ne  combibant.  Succi 
autem  quibus  cortices  excipiuntur,  non  satis  noti  sunt.  Pinguntur  etiara  antequam  vitrum  super- 
addatur.  Incertum  est  an  excoquantur  ob  nitorem  ac  duritiem.  Majora  in  pretio  sunt,  sed  mul- 
tum  ab  antiquis  degenerant. 


138  moi>i:i:x  pottery. 


Julius  Caesar  Scaliger  replied  with  criticisms  on  this  work  of  Cardan 
("  Exotericarum  Exercitationum  Liber  Quintus  Deciraus  de  Snbtilitate  ad 
Hieronynium  Cardanum ;"  Paris,  1557),  in  which,  with  an  appearance  of 
learning  which  is  now  very  amusing,  he  corrects  some  of  Cardan's  errors. 
He  seems  to  have  been  familiar  with  porcelain,  for  he  first  describes  it 
critically,  by  various  qualities;  first,  that  pictures  on  it  which  scarcely  ap- 
pear are  visible  when  opposed  to  the  light,  and  the  other  portions,  not 
painted,  are  translucent ;  second,  that,  when  containing  warm  liquids, 
porcelain  is  warmed  to  the  extent  of  the  liquid,  and  not  further.  Thus 
much,  he  says,  he  knew  from  a  few  specimens  "  among  the  miserable  rel- 
ics of  the  house  of  the  Scaligers."  A  third  quality,  he  states  —  that  now 
with  his  own  hands  he  has  proved — to  wit,  that  fragments  of  broken  por- 
celain will  "strike  fire."  A  fourth  quality  he  attributes  to  the  supersti- 
tion or  imposture  of  merchants,  namely,  that  poison  placed  in  porcelain 
will  injure  and  even  break  it.     He  proceeds : 

Fiunt  hunc  ad  modum  :  Ovorura  pntamina  et  marinorum  conchas  umbilicorum  (porcellana? 
species  horum  sunt  undo  ct  nomen)  in  tenuissimum  redigunt  pollinem,  quem  aquie  subactum 
vasorum  facie  informant:  subtusque  terram  condunt :  centesimo  anno  pro  perfecto,  effodiunt  ac 
venale  opus  habent.  Quod  eorum  vitas  superest  hseredi  testamento  transcribunt.  Quotannis 
conficiunt  atque  infodiunt,  referuntque  in  commentarios  ex  quibus  eruunt  matura.  Ex  provincia 
China  optima  advehuntur.  Alii  putant  non  vasa  sed  materiae  condi  massem  qua  extracta  con- 
fiant  vasa.  Horum  pretiae  cum  et  opes  et  patientiam,  postremo  etiam  fidein  excederent,  novo  in- 
genio  tam  belle  imitati  sunt  in  insulis  Maioricis ;  ut  srcpe  difficile  judicatu  sint,  utra  vera  utrave 
adulterina.  Profectione  forma,  nee  specie,  nee  nitore  cedunt:  aliquando  etiam  superant  elegantia. 
In  Italia  audio  tam  perfecta  venire  ut  cuivis  cassitero,  quod  ibi  vocatur  Peltrum,  anteferantur.  Ea 
corrupta  una  litera,  a  Balearibus,  ubi  dicuntur  excellentissima  fieri,  Maiolica  nominantur. 

These  extracts  from  Cardan  and  Scaliger  present  a  puzzling  question. 
They  are  discussing  porcelain,  and  especially  porcelain  of  China.  Scali- 
ger knew  what  he  was  writing  about.  The  old  Scaliger  collection  had 
furnished  him  with  general  knowledge,  and  he  had  experimented  with 
fragments.  He  must  have  been  equally  familiar  with  Italian  decorated 
pottery  of  the  best  art,  for  he  was  born  in  Italy  in  14S4-,  and  was  long 
resident  of  Verona.  Majorcan  faience,  too,  had  been  common  in  Italy 
for  a  century.  He  was  now  writing  in  Paris,  and  says  that  the  Major- 
cans  imitated  Chinese  porcelain  so  closely  that  it  was  difficult  to  tell  the 
true  from  the  false ;  that  the  Majorcan  was  in  no  respect  inferior  to  the 
Chinese  in  kind  or  in  splendor.  He  says  this  was  "novo  ingenio"  in 
Majorca.  This  cannot  refer  to  the  old  art  of  lustred  pottery,  practised 
by  the  Saracens  for  centuries,  and  for  fifty  years  at  Gubbio,  in  a  style  in- 
finitely surpassing  the  Majorcan  potters.  Nor  would  he  say  that  any 
of  that  pottery  resembled  the  Chinese  porcelains  so  closely.     There  is 


SARACEX.  139 


scarcely  more  resemblance  between  the  two  than  between  a  wooden 
trencher  and  a  silver  dish.  Besides,  he  is  clearly  not  writing  of  the 
pottery  which  lie  knew  when  in  Italy,  bnt  of  a  ware  of  new  inven- 
tion which  he,  now  absent,  hears  has  been  brought  to  Italy  in  such 
perfection  as  to  be  preferred  to  pewter  for  use.  This  was  something 
unknown  when  lie  had  lived  in  Italy,  yet  those  times  were  when  pottery 
was  in  its  glory.  But  at  this  very  date — 1555-,57 — Ferrara  was  probably 
making  porcelain  as  Venice  had  previously  made  it. 

In  short,  we  must  arrive  at  one  of  two  conclusions  in  explaining 
this  passage.  Either  Scaliger  knew  what  he  was  writing  about  when 
he  undertook  to  criticise  Cardan,  and  the  Majorcan  wares  which  he  de- 
scribes were  true  porcelain ;  or  Scaliger  knew  nothing  about  the  subject, 
and.  was  as  ignorant  of  the  appearance  as  he  was  of  the  method  of  man- 
ufacturing porcelain.  If  the  first  conclusion  be  correct,  majolica  was  a 
name  applied  in  Italy  to  porcelain.  Nor  is  the  conclusion  unreasonable. 
The  Majorcans  had  extensive  commercial  relations.  The  Saracens  con- 
trolled the  commerce  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  their  caravans  crossed 
Asia  in  all  directions.  Persian  porcelain  may  have  been  brought  to  Ma- 
jorca, and  sold  to  Italy  as  a  Majorcan  fabric.  The  novelty  of  the  ware 
is  well  known.  It  had  been  imported  into  Italy ;  Venice  had  produced 
it ;  Ferrara  was  then  attempting  its  product,  and  probably  had  succeeded. 
It  was  the  very  ware  to  take  the  place  of  pewter,  and  the  Saracens,  wide- 
awake traders,  may  well  have  sent  to  Persia  for  it  to  supply  the  new 
demand  in  Italy,  when  Scaliger  first  heard  of  it.  This  is  all  guess-work 
indeed,  and  we  have  given  space  to  the  subject  because  it  illustrates  the 
obscurity  overhanging  much  of  the  history  of  ceramic  art. 

The  Majorcan  islands  were  not  only  an  important  seat  of  potteries, 
but  a  great  commercial  centre  of  Saracen  trade.  Capmany  (cited  by  Mr. 
Fortnum)  gives  the  authority  of  Balducci  Pegolotti  for  a  list  of  towns  in 
Italy  trading  with  Majorca  in  the  fourteenth  century,  and  the  statement 
that  the  island  then  had  nine  hundred  vessels,  some  of  which  were  of 
four  hundred  tons  burden,  and  twenty  thousand  sailors.  Giovanni  di 
Bernardi  da  Uzzano  (also  cited  by  Mr.  Fortnum)  wrote  a  treatise  on  com- 
merce in  1442,  in  which  he  speaks  of  the  faience  of  Majorca  and  Minorca, 
which  had  then  "  a  very  large  sale  in  Italy." 

The  manufacture  of  Saracen  pottery  in  Majorca  was  of  early  date. 
Sismondi  states  that  in  the  year  1113  the  Pisans  fitted  out  an  expedition 
to  deliver  the  many  Christians  taken  by  Moorish  pirates  and  held  in  sla- 
very by  the  Nazir  of  Majorca,  which,  in  the  next  year,  conquered  Ivica 
and  laid  siege  to  Majorca.     After  a  year  of  fierce  resistance,  Majorca  was 


140  MODERN   POTTERY. 


taken  by  assault,  the  Nazir  was  killed,  and  the  Pisan  expedition  brought 
home  great  riches,  including  much  of  the  Majorca  pottery.  Many  of  the 
dishes  were  built  into  the  towers  and  walls  of  Pisan  churches,  as  thank- 
offerings  and  memorials  of  victory.  Many  churches  were  thus  orna- 
mented in  Italy — at  Pesaro,  Pavia,  Ancona,  and  other  places.  They  are 
mostly  of  white  ground,  with  arabesques  of  brownish  yellow,  birds, 
crosses,  knots,  stars,  etc.,  some  with  blue  grounds,  many  blue  without  or- 
nament. This  style  of  decoration  may  have  originated  with  the  spoils 
of  the  Saracens.  It  continued  till  the  time  of  Luca  della  Robbia,  in  the 
fifteenth  century.  The  best  work  on  the  Hispano- Moresque  pottery  is 
Baron  Davillier's  "  llistoire  des  Faiences  Hispano  -  Moresques  a  Reflets 
nietalliques,"  Paris,  1861. 

In  leaving  the  subject,  it  may  be  remarked  that  the  estimate  placed 
on  1 1 ispano -Moresque  pottery  during  the  past  few  years  is  altogether 
above  its  merits.  It  is  rarely  beautiful,  either  according  to  our  standard 
or  the  highest  standard  of  the  Saracens.  It  never  equalled  the  work  of 
the  Saracens  in  other  styles ;  and  the  lustred  wares  are  only  curious.  The 
importance  of  the  lustred  wares  in  the  history  of  the  art  consists  in  the 
fact  that  the  Saracens  probably  taught  the  Gubbio  artists ;  but  Maestro 
Giorgio's  lustres  are  as  far  more  brilliant  than  the  Hispano -Moresque 
as  a  calcium-light  is  more  brilliant  than  a  candle. 


II.-ITALY. 

The  people  of  Europe,  for  many  centuries  during  the  decline  and 
after  the  extinction  of  the  Roman  Empire,  had  little  love  for  pottery. 
Ceramic  art  almost  disappeared  from  among  the  fine  arts.  The  causes  of 
this  were  various,  and  their  examination  would  involve  a  careful  consid- 
eration of  the  state  of  European  society  and  civilization  too  extensive  for 
present  discussion.  It  is  not,  however,  an  evidence  of  barbarism  that  a 
people  did  not  use  pottery  for  high-art  purposes.  Rome  in  the  days  of 
her  greatest  luxury  had  neglected  it;  other  tastes  occupied  the  refined 
and  cultivated,  and  there  were  always  many  of  this  class  in  Southern 
Europe  throughout  the  ages  commonly  called  dark. 

Why  the  Christian  world  should  fall  in  love  with  the  characteristic 
arts  of  the  worst  enemies  of  Christendom  may  seem  a  difficult  question 
for  answer.  Nations  have  often  adopted  the  tastes  of  the  nations  con- 
quered by  them.  The  acceptance  of  even  barbaric  styles  by  civilized  peo- 
ples is  not  without  illustration  in  history.     But  Europe  adopted  the  arts 


ITALY. 


141 


107.  Luca  della  Robbia.    (Fac-simile  from 
Vasari,  Florence  edition,  1568.) 


of  their  unconquered  Saracen  foes,  doubtless  because  of  their  power  and 
beauty,  which  were  of  a  sort  to  command 
the  tastes  of  those  who  were  able  to  pos- 
sess things  rich  and  beautiful.  The  Cru- 
sades and  the  establishment  of  the  king- 
dom of  Jerusalem  had  introduced  the 
peculiar  styles  of  Eastern  armor,  metal 
ornamentation,  dress  stuffs,  and  general 
decoration  ;  but  subsequent  commercial 
intercourse  had  more  to  do  with  the 
permanent  establishment  of  these  styles 
among  Christians.  Trade  is  the  power- 
ful assistant  and  servant  of  art  until  art 
becomes  established,  and  its  products  in 
demand,  when  trade  suddenly  ceases  to 
be  a  servant  and  becomes  master.  The 
rich  fabrics  of  Asia  were  sought  by  lux- 
urious and  splendor -loving  Europeans. 
Then  the  Saracens,  learning  that  their 
work    could   be    turned   into    Christian 

gold,  poured  their  fabrics  into  European  markets ;  and  as  these  were  the 
only  foreign  goods,  it  was  according  to  the  law  of  all  time  that  people 
should  seek  to  possess  them.  So  in  our  day  the  arts  of  China  and  Japan 
are  visible  in  the  furniture  and  decoration  of  thousands  of  American 
houses. 

The  gradual  effect  of  Saracen  styles  on  the  artists  of  Europe  in  the 
Middle  Ages  is  distinctly  marked,  and  its  study  exceedingly  interesting. 
For  there  were  artists  in  Europe  in  those  days.  The  freedom  and  luxury 
of  the  Eastern  styles,  the  use  of  color  without  stint  and  without  rule,  as 
nature  uses  it,  the  rich  effect  of  arabesque  ornamentations,  golden  inlay- 
ings  on  metal,  and  golden  lustres  on  pottery — all  these  were  pleasing  to 
the  artists  of  Europe.  Many  of  them  were  earnest,  laborious  men,  who 
here  and  there  in  monasteries,  or  in  their  own  houses,  created  out  of 
loving  and  devout  minds  beautiful  pictures  of  saints,  and  seized  gladly 
from  the  Saracen  ornamentations  -ideas  wherewith  to  surround  the  pict- 
ures, and  glorify  the  pages  recording  saintly  thoughts  and  lives.  To  such 
men  the  fresh  and  free  style  of  Saracen  ornamentation  in  color  was  a  rev- 
elation of  beauty.  Gradually  this  revelation  came  to  the  whole  educated 
mind  of  Italy,  and  we  find  coincident  with  the  beginning  of  the  revival 
of  art  the  introduction  and  reproduction  of  Saracen  potteries. 


142  MO  1>H US   POTTERY. 


The  Saracens  were  something  more  than  conquerors,  spoilers,  and  pi- 
rates in  the  Mediterranean.  They  were  also  manufacturers  and  traders, 
sharp,  active,  watching  for  a  market,  and  quick  to  supply  it.  The  Chris- 
tian people  of  Italy  were  not  all  devotees,  nor  were  the  knights  all  rob- 
bers. Society  existed,  and  men  and  women  were  much  such  men  and 
women  as  live  now,  and  have  always  lived  in  all  times.  A  fashion  began 
to  prevail  in  Italy  of  admiring  Saracen  fabrics,  and  was  quickly  supplied. 
Among  other  admired  fabrics  was  the  pottery. 

It  is  impossible  to  say  at  how  early  a  period  native  Italian  workmen 
began  to  make  pottery  with  lead-glazed  surfaces.  Probably  this  art  had 
never  wholly  ceased.  The  monk  Theophilus  says  that  the  Byzantine 
Greeks  decorated  pottery  with  vitreous  colors,  and  elsewhere  allusion  has 
been  made  to  the  probable  manufacture  of  tiles  for  the  Church  of  St. 
Sophia  in  the  sixth  century.  From  the  sixth  to  the  twelfth  century  we 
have  abundant  relics  of  unglazed  pottery,  but  few  glazed.  Germany  fur- 
nishes more  evidence  of  continuous  mediaeval  art  than  any  other  part  of 
Europe. 

"We  are  told  of  a  plate  found  buried  at  Cividale  del  Friuli,  with  Lom- 
bard characters  "  incised  on  the  glaze,"  which  is  supposed  to  be  of  the 
eighth  century.  In  various  parts  of  Europe  glazed  tiles  were  made  for 
pavements  throughout  the  early  centuries,  and  this  art  must  have  been 
steadily  known.  Churches  in  Italy  of  the  eleventh  century  wTere  orna- 
mented with  disks  and  dishes  of  glazed  and  painted  terra-cotta.  Passeri, 
in  his  history  of  the  wares  of  Pesaro,  relates  the  extreme  antiquity  of  the 
potteries  of  that  place,  dating  from  Roman  times,  suspended  during  the 
Middle  Ages  and  revived  in  the  fourteenth  century.  Mr.  Fortnum  found 
on  a  church  at  Pisa,  built  1107,  among  the  ftadni  in  the  facade,  a  frag- 
ment of  a  Persian  or  Damascus  ware  dish,  and  several  others  "of  a  coarse 
and  probably  native  manufacture  ornamented  with  rude  painting  in  color, 
or  with  sgraffiato  work,  and  covered  with  a  lead  glaze."  These  may  have 
been  of  the  twelfth  century. 

There  is,  therefore,  reason  to  believe  that  lead -glazed  pottery  was 
made  in  Italy  from  the  eighth  to  the  fifteenth  century,  although  examples 
are  rare.  In  the  Castellani  collection  are  three  small  vases,  found  at 
Rimini,  in  the  Romagna,  in  the  walls  of  a  building  that  was  in  process 
<>f  destruction,  which  are  rudely  decorated  in  black  and  green,  and  cov- 
ered with  lead  glaze.  These  are  coarse  pottery,  but  important  specimens, 
probably  of  the  early  part  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  good  illustrations 
of  the  work  of  Italy  at  that  time. 

In  the  Phenician  pottery  has  been  seen  a  process  of  decoration  by 


ITALY. 


143 


incising  lines  through  the  glaze.  The  first  advance  in  ceramic  art  in 
Italy,  perhaps,  consisted  in  an  improvement  on  this — namely,  covering 
objects  with  a  coating  of  white  earth,  resembling  pipe -clay,  which  was 
dried,  and  possibly  slightly  baked.  Through  this  coating  designs  were 
scratched,  so  that  the  red  or  yellow  color  of  the  clay  beneath  was  visible 
in  the  lines.  This  gave  an  effect  of  color  without  using  paint.  A  lead 
glaze  covered  the  work.  These  are  now  known  as  /Sgrqffiati,  Graffiti, 
or  Incised  wares.  Early  specimens,  supposed  to  be  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  have  been  procured  from  the  churches  at  Pisa,  where  they  were 
built  into  the  facades.  The  majority  of  known  specimens,  however,  are 
of  later  date  than  much  of  the  painted  wares. 


108.  Mezza-majoliea  Dish.     (Pesaro  ?     Castellani  Coll.) 

It  was  not  till  the  fifteenth  century  that  the  fashion  for  Saracen  pat- 
terns compelled  the  Italian  potters  to  attempt  to  equal  them.  Passeri 
says  that  in  the  fourteenth  century  the  art  made  great  advances  in  Pe- 
saro. The  method  of  obtaining  a  white  surface  for  the  sgraffiato  ware 
was  a  Saracen  method,  and  probably  learned  or  imitated  from  them. 
Much  of  the  Saracen  ware  was  thus  coated  and  decorated  with  colors. 
The  Italians  used  blue,  green,  yellow,  brown,  and  black  for  painting,  and 
adopted  Saracen  styles  of  borders  and  ornamentation.  These  wares, 
made  without  stanniferous  enamel,  painted  and  glazed,  are  called  mezza- 


144  MODERN  POTTERY. 


majolica.  In  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  Pesaro  began  to  be 
famous  for  its  products.  Other  manufactories  were  established  in  Italy. 
Princes  encouraged  the  potters,  who  were  probably  in  some  cases  them- 
selves the  artists.  From  1450  to  1500,  with  rare  exceptions,  mezza-majol- 
ica  was  the  only  artistic  ware  produced  in  Italy.  Viewed  by  our  stand- 
ard, it  was  poor  art  at  the  best.  Yiewed  from  a  century  previous,  it 
was  an  advance.  Viewed  in  comparison  with  Saracen  contemporary  art, 
it  was  inferior.  The  colors  of  the  mezza-  majolica  are  gaudy,  but  cold 
and  thick,  without  life;  the  designs  stiff,  Hat,  and  uninteresting;  the  ex- 
ecution in  general  rude,  and  much  more  archaic  than  contemporary  paint- 
ing on  plaster,  panel,  or  canvas.  The  execution  is  strangely  inferior  to 
wood  and  coppei  plate  engraving  which  was  contemporary  with  much  of 
it  in  the  latter  part  of  the  fifteenth  century.  Coats  of  arms,  portraits, 
saints,  and  goddesses  are  common,  usually  surrounded  with  the  favorite 
Saracen  scale  or  other  border  ornamentation.  Dishes  painted  with  por- 
traits of  ladies,  and  inscribed,  with  their  names,  to  which  "  Bella "  or 
"  Diva  "  is  attached,  give  a  fearful  idea  of  the  standard  of  female  beauty 
in  Italy  in  those  days,  and  excite  wonder  as  to  whether  all  the  young 
women  of  Italy  looked  alike  and  had  the  same  unmeaning  countenances 
and  features.  A  few  exceptions  to  the  rule  of  uniform  ugliness  occur  in 
the  case  of  some  wares,  supposed  of  Pesaro,  which  have  a  lustre  known 
as  the  mother-of-pearl  lustre,  changeable  when  seen  at  different  angles; 
but  even  this  in  general  only  serves  to  heighten  the  stiff  paintings,  in  ex- 
ecrable taste,  which  it  encloses. 

The  mezza-majolica,  and  not  a  little  of  the  majolica  which  succeeded 
it,  are  merely  curious  specimens  of  early  ware,  and  of  the  tastes  of  an  age 
which  was  learning  new  ideas  in  art. 

The  mezza-majolica  was  made  throughout  the  period  of  the  best  art 
in  majolica.  Potters  who  did  not  care  for  the  higher  art  in  decoration 
to  which  the  stanniferous  enamel,  when  introduced,  so  greatly  contributed, 
preferred  the  old  way  of  covering  the  pieces  with  clay,  paint,  and  glaze. 

Luca  della  Robbia,  born  1388-1400,  was  a  goldsmith  in  Florence,  a 
profession  of  artistic  order,  but  which  he  abandoned  to  become  a  sculptor. 
The  bronze  doors  of  the  sacristy  of  the  cathedral  at  Florence,  and  the 
marble  frieze  of  singing- boys  for  the  organ-loft,  are  monuments  of  his 
talent.  Like  all  sculptors,  he  modelled  in  clay,  and  he  wished  to  make 
his  models  permanently  beautiful.  He  desired  to  do  that  which  Vasari 
says  he  accomplished,  faceva  V  ojyere  di  terra  quasi  eteme — "made  work 
in  clay  as  it  were  eternal."  He  discovered  the  Saracen  art  of  stanniferous 
enamel.     Probably  it  wras  not  difficult  to  discover.     Much  time  has  been 


ITALY.  145 

lost  in  discussing  where  and  how  he  found  it.  It  was  no  secret.  The 
Saracen  potters  everywhere — and  they  were  probably  as  numerous  as  Sar- 
acen towns  and  colonies — used  it.  It  was  as  well  known  among  them  as 
the  use  of  lead  glaze  for  mezza-majolica  in  Italy.  Any  Saracen  potter,  if 
asked,  "How  do  your  people  produce  that  white  enamel  so  common  to  all 
your  works  ?"  would  have  answered  at  once,  "  By  the  use  of  tin."  Italian 
potters  had  not  wanted  the  art,  and  for  their  general  purposes  probably 
regarded  it  as  involving  more  trouble  in  painting  and  finishing  than  the 
benefits  were  worth.  To  Luca,  however,  it  was  precisely  the  art  which 
he  desired,  to  make  white  statuary  out  of  clay.  His  first  work  in  it  was 
placed  in  the  cathedral  in  Florence  in  1438,  and  was  the  predecessor  of 
a  long  line  of  works  of  the  same  class.  As  he  grew  old,  and  had  pro- 
duced some  good  works  in  color  on  flat  surfaces,  other  potters  tried  the 
stanniferous  enamel  occasionally.  But  none  of  his  contemporaries  seem 
to  have  liked  it,  probably  because  artists  were  not  experienced  in  paint- 
ing on  it.  Nevertheless,  here  and  there  in  Italy  it  was  practised  enough 
to  show  that  it  was  widely  known  before  Luca's  death. 

There  is  evidently  no  foundation  for  a  common  myth  that  Luca  pre- 
served it  a  secret,  which  he  communicated  only  to  his  nephew  Andrea. 
who,  in  turn,  left  it  to  his  four  sons,  with  whom  it  died.  Some  of  the 
Delia  Bobbia  processes  may  have  been  secrets,  but  at  the  time  of  Andrea's 
death  several  potteries  in  Italy  were  using  stanniferous  enamel. 

Other  potters  probably  learned  the  art  as  Luca  had  learned  it.  It  was 
not,  however,  till  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  that  it  came  into 
general  use.  Then  it  afforded  to  masters  in  decoration  abundant  oppor- 
tunity for  superb  painting,  and  during  about  fifty  years  the  peculiar  ce- 
ramic art  of  Italy  flourished. 

"When  the  stanniferous  enamel  was  introduced,  artists  of  greater  ability 
were  led  to  paint  majolica.  It  was  at  one  time  supposed  that  Baphael 
Sanzio  himself  painted  on  pottery,  but  this  was  never  verified.  Battista 
Franco,  Taddeo  Zuccaro,  Baffaelle  dal  Colle,  and  other  well-known  artists 
made  designs  for  pottery  decoration. 

The  forms  in  which  majolica  was  made  are  various.  Large  and  small 
vases,  cups,  bowls,  and  other  round  forms  are  common.  But  the  finest 
works  of  artists  are  more  commonly  found  on  plates  or  larger  dishes, 
which  furnished  flat  surfaces  for  their  work.  One  of  the  most  common 
forms  was  the  drug-vase,  for  apothecaries1  shops,  or  the  spezieria.  Old 
Italian  palaces  had  medical  establishments  attached,  and  instead  of  the 
glass  with  gilded  labels  to  which  we  are  accustomed,  the  old  drug-store 
was  furnished  with  pottery  jars,  more  or  less  ornamented  by  the  majolica 

10 


140  MODERN   POTTERY. 


painter.  Castel- Durante  was  celebrated  for  its  product  of  these  jars. 
The  form  nearly  or  quite  cylindrical,  sometimes  swelling  at  top  and  bot- 
tom, and  rounding  in  to  the  foot  and  to  the  opening,  is  known  as  the 
dlhareUo,  or  little  tree.  It  represents  a  section  of  a  tree  or  large  bamboo, 
and  it  has  been  suggested  that  this  name  came  from  the  known  fact  that 
Oriental  drugs  were  imported  in  sections  of  the  bamboo,  used  for  boxes 
or  bottles. 

Beauty  of  form  was  not  a  characteristic  of  the  Italian  wares.  Forms 
which  are  most  graceful  in  Greek  pottery  and  in  metal  were  used  in  ma- 
jolica, but  in  the  thick  ware  of  the  Italians  are  clumsy,  and  only  rescued 
from  positive  failure  by  the  decoration.  The  entire  merit  of  the  Italian 
wares  consists  in  the  paintings.  It  is  all  wretched  pottery.  That  which 
is  not  decorated  by  good  artists  is  rarely  redeemed  by  the  color  on  it. 
A  large  majority  of  the  specimens  in  cabinets  and  collections  are  illus- 
trations of  poor  pottery  and  poor  daubing.  In  contrast  with  these  the 
works  of  the  better  artists  shine  conspicuous  in  rare  and  costly  examples. 
Many  of  the  elaborate  dishes,  on  which  yellow,  green,  and  blue  are  lav- 
ished in  the  decoration,  show  the  failure  of  Italy  in  attempting  to  use  the 
Saracen  art. 

The  exquisite  interminglings  of  the  isame  colors  on  the  Damascus 
wares,  the  startling  effects  j)roduced  by  the  bold  use  of  turquoise  on 
grounds  of  darker  blue  or  lighter  green,  were  never  reached  by  the 
Italians.  This  was,  in  truth,  due  to  the  fact  that  the  Italians  were  su- 
perior to  the  Saracens  in  drawing  and  painting.  From  the  fifteenth 
century  Italy  excelled  in  delicate  drawing.  This  is  wonderfully  illus- 
trated by  comparing  the  methods  of  reaching  success  in  wood-cuts  which 
were  employed  by  the  great  creator  of  German  art,  Diirer,  with  the 
methods  used  by  the  early  Italian  designers  on  wood.  In  Germany  bold 
lines  left  the  imagination  to  fill  in  the  details.  In  Italy  the  picture  was 
carefully  outlined  in  slender  lines.  Diirer's  drawing  of  the  human  form 
was  rude,  forcible,  and  immensely  effective  by  what  we  may  properly  call 
the  roughest  style  of  indication  ;  while  the  Italians,  following  in  careful 
drawing  the  outline  of  the  form  and  muscles,  produced,  before  the  six- 
teenth century,  such  statue-like  work  as  we  see  by  the  unknown  artist  of 
the  Polyphilus.  The  German  and  the  Italian  schools  reached  equally 
good  results;  but  if  Saracen  pottery  had  come  to  be  the  foundation  of  a 
new  art  among  the  Germans,  as  it  was  among  the  Italians,  the  former 
would  never  have  made  the  mistake  of  attempting  to  apply  the  Saracen 
system  of  a  few  bright  strong  colors  to  accurate  and  sharply  defined 
drawing  of  figures.      The  Saracens  admired  the  colors  and  used  them 


ITALY.  147 

freely,  with  drawing  which  had  little  artistic  character  except  its  boldness 
and  unrestrained  license.  A  carnation  was  a  carnation,  whether  in  bine, 
yellow,  red,  or  black  outline.  Arabesques  flowed  in  streams  over  their 
work,  and  melted  into  the  ground  colors  on  which  they  were  drawn. 
Green  leaves  and  purple  grapes  were  pleasant  to  the  eye  on  dark-bine 
grounds.  Arbitrary  rules  of  harmony  of  colors,  so  called,  which  in  these 
days  find  fault  with  nature,  and  condemn  yellow  blossoms  in  green  fields 
as  out  of  taste,  had  no  consideration  from  the  Arabian  artist,  and  hence 
a  glorious  freedom.  But  for  the  careful  and  detailed  results  of  portrait 
or  subject  painting  which  the  Italians  sought  to  produce,  and  would  have 
accomplished  had  they  possessed  the  tools,  all  the  colors  of  the  modern 
porcelain  painter's  palette  were  needed.  The  stiff  contrasts  or  harmonies 
of  color  on  their  work  are  often  painfully  disagreeable.  The  want  of 
flesh-colors  rendered  necessary  conventional  ways  of  treating  faces  and 
undraped  bodies,  curious  enough  at  times,  but  only  curious,  making  men, 
women,  gods,  and  saints  alike  green,  sallow,  and  sickly.  Exceptions  to 
this  general  rule  of  disagreeable  color  are  decorations  in  grisaille  or  in 
chiar-oscuro,  which  present  examples  of  wonderful  beauty.  The  most 
delicate  and  charming  effects  were  produced  in  gray,  creamy  white,  or 
other  soft  shades,  in  which  sirens,  dragons,  cherubs,  masks,  and  ara- 
besques float  or  sink  into  the  rich  deep  ground  color.  The  enamel  and 
glaze  heighten  their  beauty. 

The  knowledge  of  the  method  of  producing  lustred  wares  was  to  ce- 
ramic work  in  Italy  as  important  as  the  discovery  of  tin  enamel.  This 
was  an  art  fitted  to  lift  the  coarse  and  heavy  pastes  and  colors  of  Italian 
pottery  into  the  realms  of  positive  beauty.  How  good  was  the  taste 
which  led  to  the  placing  of  this  lustre  ornamentation  on  plates  decorated 
with  well  -  executed  pictures  by  able  artists  is  a  matter  of  doubt.  The 
bizarre  effect  of  this  interminfflinff  of  inconsistent  decorations  was  doubt- 
less  pleasing  to  many,  while  it  is  puzzling  to  our  ideas  of  the  age  of  Ra- 
phael and  his  school.  But  no  doubt  can  be  entertained  of  the  splendor 
of  the  lustre  itself,  and  it  is  this  characteristic  which  marks  the  Italian 
majolica  as  distinct  from  all  other  ceramic  art  in  history.  When,  or  in 
what  manner  it  was  obtained  from  the  Saracens,  or  whether  it  was  an  in- 
dependent discovery,  does  not  appear.  The  lustred  wares  of  the  East 
or  of  Spain  had  been  long  known  and  admired  in  Italy.  It  first  appears 
on  Italian  fabrics  in  an  inferior  lustre,  known  now  as  the  madreperla, 
but  this  disappeared  in  the  improvements  made  at  Gubbio,  where  Maes- 
tro Giorgio  produced  the  gorgeous  lustres,  surpassing  all  Saracen  dreams 
of  splendor. 


14S  MODERN   POTTERY. 


The  best  period  of  the  Italian  art  in  pottery  was  the  first  half  of  the 
sixteenth  century.  After  L560  fine  work  is  exceptional.  The  factories 
of  the  Abruzzi,  however,  continued  to  produce  painted  wares  of  excellent 
quality  down  to  the  eighteenth  century;  and  Del  Vecchio  and  Giustini- 
ani  of  Naples  may  he  regarded  as  about  the  last  of  the  continuous  series 
of  artistic  potters  in  Italy. 

Having  thus  outlined  the  history  of  the  art  in  Italy,  the  products  of 
particular  localities  and  factories  must  be  separately  examined. 

Sgraffiati,  Graffiti,  or  Incised  Warf>s.  —  The  earliest  examples  of 
this  decoration  are  those  which  we  have  described  among  the  Phenician 
pottery,  where  simple  combinations  of  lines  are  scratched  through  the 
surfaces  of  black  and  red  wares.  In  Italian  potteries  it  consists  in  scratch- 
ing or  incising  designs  through  a  surface  color,  so  as  to  exhibit  the  under- 
lying color,  whether  that  be  artificial  or  the  natural  color  of  the  pottery. 
Scratched  lines  are  among  the  earliest  styles  of  decoration  occurring  to 
savage  manufacturers,  and  are  more  or  less  used  for  really  artistic  pur- 
poses in  the  best  potteries. 

In  Italy  the  method  was  simple,  and  the  results  good.  The  pottery 
was  first  baked  unglazed,  then  covered  with  a  thin  coating  of  white  clay, 
usually  the  marl  of  Vicenza.  This  was  done  by  mixing  the  prepared  clay 
in  water  to  the  thickness  of  cream,  and  dipping  the  piece  in  it.  When 
this  coating  wras  dry,  designs  were  scratched  in  it  with  an  iron  point, 
showing  the  red  pottery  in  the  lines.  The  whole  was  covered  with  a 
lead  glaze  slightly  colored  with  iron  and  copper,  and  the  final  baking 
finished  the  work. 

This  form  of  decoration  was  one  of  the  earliest  in  Italy.  Early  Pisan 
bacini  have  been  mentioned.  Other  examples  are  probably  as  old  as  the 
fourteenth  century,  and  many  are  undoubtedly  of  the  middle  and  latter 
part  of  the  fifteenth.  The  decoration  continued  in  use  throughout  the 
best  period  of  Italian  pottery  and  its  decadence,  even  into  the  seventeenth 
century. 

The  use  of  the  Vicenza  earth  leads  to  the  belief  that  some  specimens 
were  made  near  that  place  in  the  early  periods,  but  a  great  portion  of  the 
known  examples  have  by  some  been  assigned  to  Citta  di  Castello,  and  by 
others  to  La  Fratta.  Mr.  Fortnum  speaks  of  a  class  of  these  wares,  dis- 
tinguished by  their  designs  as  probably  the  work  of  one  hotf<<j<t,  among 
which  a  border  of  mulberry  leaves  is  general;  shields  of  the  ''Pavoise" 
or  kite  form  are  found,  a  sort  of  florid  Gothic  character  on  some  of  the 
leafage  moulding,  costumes  of  the  North  of  Italy  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
lion  supporters,  and  other  details  connecting  them  with  North  Italian  art ; 


ITALY.  149 

and  lie  is  of  opinion  that  they  were  produced  in  Lombardy  Or  on  the 
Venetian  main-land. 

Some  highly  finished  pieces  of  rich  brown  color  are  of  the  latter  part 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  the  work  of  an  artist  at  Pavia,  who  seems  to 
have  been  clerical,  since  on  a  bowl  is  inscribed  Presbyter  Antonius  Maria 
( 't/tit/s  Papiensis  Prothonotarius  Ajpostolicus  fecit. 

Specimens  are  in  a  variety  of  forms,  and  the  incised  decoration  is 
often  used  in  conjunction  with  color  painting  and  relief  ornaments  of 
leafage,  etc.  Cups  are  supported  on  feet,  around  which  figures  are 
groined.  Religious  and  profane  legends,  rhymes,  and  proverbs  are  on 
them. 

Florence. — We  have  seen  that  Luca,  Delia  Robbia  was  the  first  Ital- 
ian who  is  known  to  have  used  stanniferous  enamel.  It  has  been  sug- 
gested that  Saracen  potters  had  before  this  time  established  themselves 
in  Italy.  It  is  not  impossible  or  improbable;  but  no  specimens  of  the 
work  of  such  potters  now  exist,  and  the  earliest  example  of  stanniferous 
enamel  made  in  Italy  is  the  work  of  Luca  Delia  Robbia  at  Florence. 

The  enamel  of  Luca  is  by  some  supposed  to  have  been  a  peculiar  com- 
position which  was  the  u  secret"  retained  in  the  Delia  Robbia  family; 
and  many  think  the  white  on  his  work  peculiar  and  superior  to  any  other 
of  the  period.  But  the  enamels  of  the  Delia  Robbia  ware  vary  in  purity 
of  color,  as  do  those  of  the  various  majolica-makers  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury. Mr.  Fortnum  is  of  opinion,  however,  that  the  enamel  of  Luca 
shows  a  greater  degree  of  opacity  and  solidity.  He  was,  so  far  as  we  are 
now  informed,  the  only  person  in  Italy  for  a  long  period  of  years  who 
used  the  stanniferous  enamel.  Few,  indeed,  used  it  until  after  his  death 
(in  1481). 

Luca  used  for  decoration  at  first  blue,  sparingly  applied,  then  green, 
maroon,  and  yellow  colors.  His  white  relief  figures  were  often  on  blue 
grounds,  with  a  few  touches  of  blue  on  the  figures.  His  modelling  was 
admirable,  and  all  his  works,  notwithstanding  the  quaintness  of  style,  are 
full  of  expression  and  emotion.  The  faces  of  his  Virgins  are  often  beau- 
tiful, and  his  grouping  is  invariably  effective.  The  student  must  always 
bear  in  mind,  while  examining  his  works,  that  the  art  of  the  sculptor  was 
not  far  advanced  in  the  fifteenth  century.  He  had  renowned  predeces- 
sors, and  he  advanced  in  some  respects  not  only  beyond  them,  but  beyond 
his  age. 

His  works  consist  chief!}'-  of  reliefs  for  wall  or  altar  use,  and  also  for 
external  ornaments  of  buildings.  His  taste  was  exquisite.  His  colors 
were  applied  with  the  most  judicious  effect,  never  brilliant  or  gaudy,  ex- 


1 50 


MODERN  POTTER  V. 


cept  in  work  to  be  seen  from  a  distance  and  far  below.     lie  also  painted 

on  plain  surfaces,  ami  works  of  this  kind,  enamelled,  are  attributed  to  him. 

Vasari,  in  his  biography  of  Luca,  describes  many  of  his  relief  works  in 

enamel,  concluding  with  a  marble  sepulchre  of  the  little  brother  of  the 

Duke  of  Calavria*  which  he  executed  "with  many  ornaments  of  glazed 

work,  assisted  by  his  brother  Agostino ;"  and 
adds,  ''After  this  Luca  sought  to  discover  a 
method  of  painting  figure  and  history  on  the 
flat  surface  of  terra-cotta,  to  give  life  to  the 
pictures,  and  made  an  experiment  in  a  toiido 
which  is  above  the  Tabernacle  of  four  saints 
on  Or  S.  Michele,  on  the  surface  of  which 
he  painted,  in  five  compartments,  the  instru- 
ments and  insignia  of  the  arts  <1<;  fdbricanti 
with  very  beautiful  ornaments.  And  two 
other  tondi  he  made  for  the  same  place;  in 
one,  for  the  apothecary's  art,  Our  Lady ;  and 
in  the  other,  for  the  mercantile  business,  a 
lily  above  a  bale  of  goods,  which  had  around 
it  a  festoon  of  fruit,  and  foliage  of  various 
kinds,  so  well  done  as  to  seem  natural  and 
not  of  painted  terra-cotta.     He  made,  too,  for 

L09.  Majolica  Vase.  Relief  work:  M-  BenozZO  Federighi,  Bishop  of  Fiesole,  for 
white  on  blue ;  silver-gilt  modern  the  Church  of  S.  Brancazio,  a  marble  tomb, 
handles.    (Philips  Coll.)  above  wMch  wag  Federig0j  reeumbent,  taken 

(  ritratto]  from  life,  and  three  other  half-length  figures.  And  on  the  orna- 
ments of  the  pilasters  of  this  work  he  painted,  on  the  plain  surface,  cer- 
tain festoons  with  masses  of  fruit  so  vivid  and  natural  that  with  pencil  on 
panel  it  could  not  be  so  well  done  in  oil.  And,  in  fact,  this  work  is  mar- 
vellous and  most  rare,  Luca  having  in  it  done  the  light  and  shade  so  well 
that  it  does  not  seem  that  by  fire  [a  fuoco]  this  were  possible.'"  Yasari 
goes  on  to  speak  of  work  ("  storie  e  figure  dipinte  in  piano  ")  which  Luca 
left  unfinished  at  his  death,  of  which  he  saw  pieces  in  his  house. 

It  is  evident  from  these  extracts,  which  we  translate  from  Vasari 
(Florence  edition,  1568),  that  Luca  was  a  painter  on  pottery,  as  well  as  a 
sculptor;  but  it  is  to  be  noted  that  the  expression  a  fuoco  does  not  bear 
out  the  translation  "in  vitrified  enamel"  which  has  been  given  to  it.  It 
is  probable,  however,  that  he  did  use  enamel  on  plain  surfaces,  and  per- 
haps was  the  first  Italian  so  to  do.  Mr.  J.  C.  Robinson  has  no  doubt  of 
the  propriety  of  assigning  to  Luca  twelve  circular  medallions  each  1  foot 


ITALY. 


151 


10|-  inches  in  diameter,  in  enamelled  terra-cotta,  painted  in  chiar-oscuro 
with  impersonations  of  the  twelve  months. 

M.  Jacqnemart  is  of  opinion  that  Luca  acquired  the  art  of  enamelling 
pottery  at  Caffagiuolo,  where  he  thinks  it  was  practised  before  1438  ; 
but  this  opinion  is  based  on  an  arbitrary  disposition  of  some  specimens 
of  enamelled  ware,  in  which  other  authorities  do  not  agree  with  him. 
Luca  died  in  1481,  leaving,  according  to  Yasari,  two  brothers,  Ottaviano 
and  Agostino,  the  latter  being  his  assistant  before  named.  It  is,  how- 
ever, supposed  that  this  was  not  a  brother,  but  was  Agostino  di  An- 
tonio di  Duccio,  who  worked  at  Perugia  in  1461,  before  the  death  of 
Luca,  where  Yasari  says  he  executed  in  the  Church  of  S.  Bernardino  three 
subjects  in  basso -rilievo  and  four 
figure  toncle  multo  hen  condotte  e  con 
delieata  maniera. 

Andrea  Delia  Kobbia,  nephew  of 
Luca,  born  1457,  was  heir  to  the  art 
of  his  uncle,  as  sculptor,  potter,  and 
painter.  Yasari  enumerates  a  long 
list  of  his  works  in  marble  and  in 
terra-cotta,  in  Florence.  Among  the 
latter  are  a  Circumcision  ;  another 
and  great  work,  Cod  the  Father  hold- 
ing in  his  arms  the  crucified  Christ, 
surrounded  by  a  multitude  of  angels ; 
all  the  figures  in  the  loggia  of  the 
Hospital  of  St.  Paul  in  Florence,  of 
terra  hi  y<  twiata,  and  many  others 
which  Yasari  says  show  the  great  ar- 
tistic ability  of  Andrea.  His  works 
resemble  those  of  his  uncle,  and  it  is 
difficult,  sometimes  impossible,  to  distinguish  them.  Some  of  his  reliefs 
are  harder  and  more  stiff  and  conventional  in  treatment,  and  he  over- 
Loaded  his  borders  with  ornament.  He  executed  the  same  class  of  work 
with  Luca,  and  the  churches  of  Italy  were  enriched  with  relief  ornaments, 
medallions,  altar-pieces,  and  other  objects  within,  and  immense  disks,  orna- 
mented with  colored  fruits  and  flowers  in  relief  built  into  the  external 
walls.  He  died  in  1528.  Andrea  left  a  large  family  of  children,  of 
whom  three — Giovanni,  Luca,  ami  Cirolamo — inherited  the  artistic  char- 
acter, and  produced  various  works  in  enamelled  pottery,  but  not  equal 
to  those  of  their  father  and  great-uncle.     Yasari  says  that  this  Luca  did 


110.  Madonna:  Delia  Kobbia  ware.     White  on 
blue.     (T.- P.  Coll.) 


L52 


MODERN   POTTERY. 


much  work  in  enamel,  and  mentions  by  him  the  pavements  of  the  Loggi 
of  the  Vatican  at  Rome,  made  under  the  eye  of  Raphael.  The  works  of 
Giovanni  are  inferior  to  those  of  his  brothers.  Girolamo  went  to  France, 
where  he  was  employed  by  the  king  to  decorate  the  Chateau  de  Madrid, 
near  Paris,  which  work  he  commenced  in  1528,  and  continued,  with  an 
interruption  of  six  years  passed  in  Italy,  till  his  death,  which  was  about 
L567.  This  chateau  was  ornamented  with  much  of  his  enamel,  which  in 
L792  was  destroyed  with  the  building,  the  terra- cottas  being  sold  and 
ground  up  for  cement. 

It  has  been  supposed  that  other  potters  in  Florence  made  relief  work 
like  that  of  the  Delia  Robbias,  but  none  is  verified  as  made  there. 


111.   Majolica  Painter  at  Work.     (From  a  Caffagiuolo  dish  at  South  Kensington.) 

Caffagiioi.o. — This  quiet  little  village,  once  a  favorite  resort  of  the 
princes  of  the  house  of  Medici,  who  had  here  a  villa  or  palace,  was  one  of 
the  earliest  seats  of  manufacture  of  Italian  artistic  pottery.  It  does  not 
appear  as  yet  when  this  establishment  first  used  tin  enamel.  No  dated 
piece  of  such  ware  is  known  as  certainly  made  here  before  the  sixteenth 


ITALY.  153 

century,  although  many  specimens  exist  which  may  with  reason  be  con- 
sidered Caffagiuolo  work  of  the  previous  century.  No  mezza-majolica 
seems  to  have  been  made  here.  All  the  wares  are  enamelled.  In  the 
Castellani  collection  is  a  plaque  in  the  form  of  an  heraldic  shield,  with 
white  enamelled  ground,  on  which  stands  a  black  cock  holding  a  fleur- 
de-lis  in  his  beak.  Underneath  is  the  date  1460.  If  this  be  correctly 
assigned  to  Caffagiuolo,  it  is  the  oldest  dated  specimen,  the  Cluny  Mu- 
seum in  Paris  having  one  dated  1475,  and  the  Sevres  Museum  one  dated 
1177.  These  specimens,  however,  although  probably  correctly  assigned, 
cannot  be  accepted  as  without  question  of  this  factory.  The  dates  which 
can  be  relied  on  begin  with  1507. 

The  glaze  and  enamel  of  Caffagiuolo  are  of  a  pure,  even  white.  The 
general  characteristics  of  the  ware  are  this  pure  glaze,  and  the  use  of  a 
rich  dark  blue,  very  brilliant,  used  in  some  cases  in  masses  showing  the 
strokes  of  the  brush.  Other  colors  were  brilliant,  but  not  so  distinctive, 
excepting  a  bright  red,  which  is  peculiar.  The  arms  of  the  Medici  family 
are  frequent  in  the  decorations,  their  emblems  and  mottoes,  and  some- 
times the  letters  S  P  Q  F,  for  Senatus  Populiisque  Florenthius. 

From  the  commencement  to  the  end  of  the  first  period,  the  decorators 
of  pottery  in  Italy  used  for  the  ornamental  portions  of  their  work  the  ex- 
quisite designs  which  had  been  invented  and  published  by  the  engravers 
on  wood  of  Italy,  France,  and  Germany.  These  designs  in  many  cases 
originated  with  the  illuminators  who  had  preceded  the  arts  of  engraving; 
but  in  the  latter  part  of  the  fifteenth  and  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century  books  were  adorned  with  beautiful  border- work  and  elaborate 
initial  letters,  sometimes  so  large  as  to  cover  nearly  half  the  page  of  a 
folio,  in  which  arabesques  of  every  conceivable  form  were  deliciously  ap- 
plied. The  dolphins  and  dragons  with  human  heads  which  appear  in 
color  on  majolica  plates  had  been  favorite  subjects  of  ornamental  letters 
in  books  of  the  fifteenth  century.  The  transition  from  the  Saracen  styles 
of  the  earlier  period  to  the  Italian  styles  of  the  finer  period  was  exactly 
the  transition  which  the  illuminators  had  experienced,  who  to  the  inter- 
weavings  of  ribbons  and  stems  and  flowers  of  the  Saracen  decorations 
had  added  grotesques,  birds,  griffins,  and  an  infinite  variety  of  compli- 
cated arabesques,  on  which  the  wood-engravers  founded  a  still  greater 
variety  of  beautiful  and  inexplicable  forms.  This  is  one  of  the  most  in- 
teresting parts  of  the  study  of  the  pottery  decorations  of  Italy,  as  it  illus- 
trates the  relations  which  the  different  arts  bore  to  one  another  at  this 
period  of  universal  revival.  The  name  of  the  place  is  spelled  on  the 
majolica  Cafagiol,  Caffagiulo,  Chaffaggilolo,  Gafagizotto. 


154  MODERN  POTTERY. 


An  interesting  dish  in  the  South  Kensington  Museum,  of  Caffagiuolo 
fabric,  was  sold  in  the  Bernal  sale  for  one  hundred  and  twenty -five 
pounds,  having  been  purchased  by  Mr.  Bernal  for  live  pounds  from  a 
dealer  who  had  bought  it  at  the  Stowe  sale  for  four  pounds.  It  was  said 
to  represent  ''Raphael  and  the  Fornarina,"  but  simply  shows  the  interior 
of  the  studio  of  a  majolica  artist  who  is  at  his  work,  while  two  visitors, 
perhaps  a  duke  and  duchess,  sit  looking  on.  Some  idea  may  be  gathered 
from  the  dedgn  (111.  Ill)  of  the  manner  in  which  the  majolica  artists 
worked. 

Siena. — Quite  recently  the  wrorks  of  this  place  have  been  withdrawn 
from  those  of  Pesaro,  Caffagiuolo,  and  Faenza,  among  which  they  had 
been  placed.  The  letters  I  P  occurring  in  large  size  on  pieces  had  led  to 
their  classification  with  work  of  Pesaro.  They  are  now  known  to  be  of 
Siena  manufacture.  The  discovery  of  another  signature  on  a  small  plate 
—fato  i  Siena  da  mo  benedstto — further  aided  in  the  selection  of  speci- 
mens, for  this  plate  wras  evidently  by  the  same  hand  with  some  of  those 
bearing  the  I  P.  It  is  supposed  that  this  Maestro  Benedetto  was  both  the 
head  of  the  establishment,  and  the  artist  who  executed  the  finest  of  the 
work.  The  examples  show  a  resemblance  to  the  wTorks  of  Caffagiuolo. 
The  superior  class  of  the  workmanship,  and  the  delicacy  of  the  arabesque 
and  other  ornamentations,  entitle  them  to  high  rank.  A  dish,  illustrated 
in  colors,  in  the  South  Kensington  Catalogue,  presents  remarkable  resem- 
blance to  the  style  of  the  illuminators  of  the  previous  century. 

Pisa.  —  There  must  have  been  ancient  potteries  here.  The  bacini 
wdiich  are  let  into  the  walls  of  old  churches,  and  which  are  not  Saracen, 
but  Italian  wTork,  were  probably  produced  on  the  spot.  Some  of  these  are 
sgrafRati,  others  decorated  in  blue,  all  coarse  and  archaic,  but  interesting 
as  work  of  the  early  period.  Mr.  Fortnum,  who  has  most  carefully  ex- 
amined them,  has  deposited  specimens  in  the  South  Kensington  Museum, 
which  he  dates  at  about  1300  a.d.  These  are  small  bowls,  cream-white 
ground,  with'  leaves,  zigzags,  etc.,  incised,  and  colored  green  and  brown. 
Later,  faience  was  probably  made  at  Pisa,  though  little  is  known  of  it. 
A  vase  with  serpent  handles  is  inscribed  Pisa.  Some  think  this  a,  work 
of  Pesaro,  and  it  resembles  the  fabrics  of  Caffagiuolo;  but  Mr.  Fortnum  is 
unwilling  to  deprive  Pisa  of  this  solitary  example. 

Monte  Lupo  made  a  pottery  of  red  clay,  colored  deep  brown  or  black, 
decorated  with  gilding  and  oil-paintings  in  colors.  Wares  of  similar  char- 
acter were  made  at  Castel-Durante.  Reliefs  and  raised  work  of  white  or 
cream  clay  on  the  dark  ground  occur.  Marbled  or  mottled  surfaces  like 
stone  or  shell  are  also  found.     Raffaele  Girolamo  signs  a  cup  dated  1030. 


ITALY. 


155 


Coarse  lead-glazed  wares  with  figures  in  striking  costumes  are  assigned  to 
this  place. 

Urbino. — In  no  part  of  Italy  is  the  history  of  the  best  period  of  the 
potter's  art  so  interesting  as  in  Urbino,  and  this  because  of  the  general  art 
history  of  that  old  city. 

The  revival,  or  the  birth,  of  art  in  Italy  was  in  the  fifteenth  century. 
For  it  is  in  many  respects  to  be  regarded  as  a  first  birth  in  Italy,  rather 


112.  Dish:  Charles  V., by  Orazio  Fontana.     (Urbino.     Castellani  Coll.) 

than  a  renaissance.  The  ancient  arts  in  Italy  had  been  Phenician  and 
Greek  rather  than  Italian.  The  period  when  the  Malatesta  court  at  Rim- 
ini, the  Sforza  at  Pesaro,  and  the  Montefeltro  at  Urbino  alike  lent  their 
aid  to  the  cultivation  and  progress  of  the  fine  arts,  is  full  of  interest  in  all 
departments. 

To  Federigo  da  Montefeltro,  Duke  of  Urbino,  is  perhaps  due,  as  much 
as  to  any  other  person,  the  development  of  Italian  art.  lie  was  a  soldier 
and,  for  his  times,  a  scholar.  lie  had  led  no  life  of  inglorious  ease.  He 
fought  at  St.  Flaviano  in  1460,  at  Molinella  in  14<!7,  at  Rimini  in  1469. 
He  captured  Volterra  in  147^,  and  there  took  for  his  sole  share  of  the 
spoil  of  the  conquered  city  an  old  manuscript  Hebrew  Bible,  which  he 
thought  worth  more  than  gold,  and  which  he  deposited  in  his  library. 
Encouraging  learning  and   art,  he   made    Urbino,  what  it  was  then   and 


L56 


MODERN  POTTERY. 


afterward  called,  the  Athens  of  Italy.  Sismondi  speaks  of  him  as  the 
Mecsenas  of  the  arts.  Italy  has  always  looked  to  Urbino  in  his  day  as  the 
city  of  the  schools  of  learning.  His  duchess,  Battista  Sforza,  was  his  aid 
and  ally  in  all  his  good  works,  whom  Tasso  has  immortalized,  lie  died, 
a  very  old  man,  in  14S2,  leaving  Urbino  the  artistic  centre  of  Italy. 

Raphael  Sanzio  was  born  there,  in  14S3,  and  brought  up,  to  the  age  of 
twenty-one,  among  the  influences  which  Federigo  had  created.  What  the 
world  owes  to  the  old  Duke  of  Urbino  can  hardly  be  overestimated.  Nor 
did  the  glory  of  Urbino  fade  with  the  death  of  Federigo.  Guid'  Ubaldo, 
his  son,  educated  by  his  mother  and  by  the  masters  whom  his  father  had 
gathered,  was  his  worthy  successor,  and  continued  to  be  the  steadfast  pa- 
tron of  the  arts.  His  wife,  Elizabetta  Gonzaga,  was  renowned  for  her 
beauty,  purity,  and  accomplishments.  So  celebrated  was  she,  and  so  well 
known  in  England,  that  it  has  been  suggested  by  Sir  Charles  Eastlake 
that  Shakspeare  had  her  in  mind  when  he  makes  the  Prince  address  Mi- 
randa : 

"  For  several  virtues 
Have  I  liked  several  women;  never  any 
With  so  full  soul  but  some  defect  in  her 
Did  quarrel  with  the  noblest  grace  she  ow'd, 
And  put  it  to  the  foil :  but  you,  0  you, 
So  perfect  and  so  peerless,  are  created 
Of  every  creature's  best." 

The  art  histoiy  of  Urbino  under  the  reign  of  Guid'  Ubaldo  I.  is  full 
of  importance.  lie  died  in  1508,  and  was  succeeded  by  Francesco  Maria 
della  Rovere,  whose  relationship  to  the  pope,  (his 
uncle)  enabled  him  to  send  Raphael  to  Rome.  <  )n 
his  death,  in.  1538,  Guid'  Ubaldo  II.  succeeded  him, 
and  became  the  patron  of  the  great  artists  in  ma- 
jolica throughout  his  duchy. 

It  is  not  probable  that  painted  pottery  was 
made  at  Urbino  as  early  as  at  other  cities  which 
were  or  became  parts  of  the  duchy.  The  four 
great  seats  of  the  work  in  the  time  of  Guid' 
Ubaldo  II.  were  Pesaro,  Gnbbio,  Castel- Durante, 
and  Urbino.  The  products  of  these  factories  made 
Urbino  renowned  in  the  art,  and  the  city  itself  be- 

,    came,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  the  residence  of  ar- 
113.   rugrim   Bottle,  painted  J' 

by  Orazio  Fontana.    (Hi-    tists  whose  work  gives,  perhaps,  the  greatest  fame 
bina)  to  majolica  painting. 

The  first  of  the  Urbino  artists  of  whom  we  have  any  definite  knowl- 


ITALY.  157 

edge  was  Nicola.  He  worked  very  shortly  after  the  year  1500,  and  his 
paintings  are  now  very  highly  prized.  The  earliest  pieces  of  Urbino 
fabrication  are  by  him,  in  a  service  known  as  the  Gonzaga-Este  service, 
made  while  Isabella  d'  Este  was  living  and  after  her  marriage,  therefore 
between  1490  and  1539. 

The  manner  of  Nicola  da  Urbino,  says  Mr.  Fortnnm,  "  is  remarkable 
for  a  sharp  and  careful  outline  of  the  figures ;  the  features  clearly  defined, 
but  with  much  delicacy  of  touch  ;  the  eyes,  mouth,  and  nostrils  denoted  by 
a  clear  black  spot ;  the  faces  oval,  derived  from  the  Greek  model ;  a  free 
use  of  yellow  and  a  pale  green ;  a  tightening  of  the  ankle  and  a  peculiar 
rounding  of  the  knee;  the  hair  and  beard  of  the  older  heads  heightened 
with  white ;  the  architecture  bright  and  distinct ;  the  landscape  back- 
ground somewhat  carefully  rendered  in  dark  blue  against  a  golden  sky ; 
and,  lastly,  the  stems  of  the  trees,  strangely  tortuous,  are  colored  brown, 
strongly  marked  with  black  lines,  as  also  are  the  rolled-up  clouds :  these 
are  treated  in  a  manner  not  very  true  to  nature." 

Many  artists  worked  at  Urbino  in  the  best  period  following  Nicola, 
and  contemporary  with  him,  and  a  large  proportion  of  the  majolica  ware 
now  preserved  wTas  made  and  painted  here. 

The  Fontana  family  removed  to  Urbino  from  Castel-Durante,  but  at 
what  date  does  not  appear.  Their  name  was  formerly  Pellipario,  and 
"Guido  Niccolai  Pellipario,  figulo  da  Durante,"  was  certainly  in  Urbino 
in  1520.  They  wrere  both  potters  and  painters.  Mr.  Robinson's  opinion 
(Soulages  Catalogue,  Appendix  B)  is  that  Nicola  Pellipario  had  a  son 
Guido,  who  had  three  sons,  Camillo,  Orazio,  Nicola  second,  and  that  Ca- 
millo had  a  son,  Guido  Flaminio,  all  of  whom  are  of  the  Fontana  family 
of  artists.  Nicola  is  by  some  supposed  identical  with  the  Nicola  da  Ur- 
bino before  named.  The  family  continued  work  from  father  to  son,  until 
the  seventeenth  century. 

In  the  Fountaine  collection  is  a  vase  signed  Fatto  in  Urbmo  in  botega 
di  M.  Guido  Fontana  Vasaro.  Other  works  are  marked  Fate  in  botega 
di  Oratio  Fontana.  Orazio  worked  with  Guido,  his  father,  up  to  1565, 
when  he  established  a  separate  botega.  Camillo  is  said  to  have  gone  to 
Florence  or  to  Ferrara,  and  returned  to  Urbino,  where  he  died  in  1605. 
The  existence  of  a  potter  and  artist  whose  signature  is  Gi>ido  Durantino 
has  led  to  a  discussion  of  his  probable  identity  with  Guido  Fontana,  the 
father,  which  is  now  generally  believed  to  be  the  fact. 

Signed  work  from  the  Urbino  botegas  may  of  course  be  classified ;  but 
as  a  large  majority  of  the  pieces  are  not  signed,  they  can  be  attributed  to 
their  makers  only  by  careful  examination  and  comparison.     There  were 


158  MODERN   POTTERY. 


evidently  other  unknown  artists  employed  in  the  works,  who  decorated 
pieces  wholly  or  in  part.  The  work  of  Orazio  Fontana  is  perhaps  more 
highly  esteemed  than  that  of  any  other  artist.  No  written  description 
can  assist  the  student  in  understanding  its  peculiar  merit  or  characteris- 
tics. His  figures  are  drawn  with  spirit  and  freedom,  and  perhaps  it  may 
be  said  that  in  looking  at  his  best  works  one  forgets,  more  readily  than  in 
examining  any  others,  the  defective  color  and  green  or  yellow  look  which 
so  often  offends  the  most  cultivated  taste  which  has  not  been  educated 
to  the  majolica  decorations. 

The  dish  with  a  portrait  of  Charles  V.  (111.  112)  is,  however,  an  ex- 
ceptionally fine  work,  on  which  any  eye  would  repose  with  content  and 
admiration.  The  emperor  wears  a  blue  velvet  cap  and  vest  with  a  purple 
coat ;  his  order  of  the  Golden  Fleece,  in  yellow,  hangs  from  his  neck. 
The  curtain  at  his  left  is  a  deep  green,  and  the  pillar  at  his  right  a  brill- 
iant blue.  The  flesh-tints  are  in  pale  yellow,  the  palette  of  the  majolica 
artists  not  furnishing  them  with  more  appropriate  flesh-colors;  but  even 
on  this  the  blue  eyes  have  a  life  and  light  rarely  seen  in  faience  painting. 

While  Orazio  has  been  called  the  Rubens  of  majolica  painters,  another 
Urbino  artist  rivals  hi  in  in  fame.  Francesco  Xanto  came  from  Rovigo 
to  Urbino,  and  has  left  his  name  or  X  on  many  pieces  of  his  work,  hj 
which  alone  we  know  him.  His  full  name  was  Francesco  Xanto  Avelli, 
to  which  he  added,  as  was  customary,  the  place  of  his  birth — "da  Rovigo.'" 
He  produced  a  great  amount  of  work,  much  of  which  was  sent  to  Gubbio 
to  be  finished  with  the  lustre  of  Giorgio.  Opinions  concerning  him  dif- 
fer. Mr.  Robinson  says  of  him,  lie  "had  a  talent  for  the  arrangement  of 
his  works  in  composition,  nearly  all  his  subjects  being  '  pasticci ;'  the  va- 
rious figures  or  groups  introduced  being  the  invention  of  other  artists 
copied  with  adroit  variations  over  and  over  again,  and  made  to  do  duty 
in  widely  different  characters.  *  *  *  His  designs  are  generally  from 
classical  or  mythological  subjects.  Xanto's  execution,  although  dexter- 
ous, is  monotonous  and  mechanical.  His  scale  of  coloring  is  crude  and 
positive,  full  of  violent  oppositions;  the  only  merit,  if  merit  it  be,  being 
that  of  a  certain  force  and  brightness  of  aspect:  in  every  other  respect  his 
coloring  is  commonplace,  not  to  say  disagreeable  even." 

We  have  quoted  Mr.  Robinson  thus,  for  the  sake  of  illustrating  to  our 
readers  the  fact,  always  to  be  borne  in  mind  in  reading  works  on  art.  that 
standards  of  excellence  are  often  arbitrary.  In  no  respect  are  they  more 
so  than  in  discussing  the  majolica  paintings  of  Italy.  A  comparatively 
small  number  of  persons  have  devoted  attention  to  the  subject,  and  very 
few  lovers  of  art  are  attracted  to  this  queer  and  mi  generis  department. 


ITALY.  159 

Hence  the  standards  of  merit  are  not  established,  as  in  sculpture  and 
painting,  by  the  verdict  of  the  art-loving  world,  but  only  by  a  few  stu- 
dents, who,  each  for  himself,  has  determined  what  work  best  pleases  him. 
This  is  natural  and  necessary.  The  majolica  painting  cannot  be  com- 
pared with  any  other,  not  even  with  modern  faience  painting.  The  col- 
ors possessed  by  the  artists  were  few,  and  they  were  compelled  to  produce 
the  best  results  they  could  with  these.  In  chiar-oscuro  decorations,  they 
came  into  the  field  of  the  painters  in  fresco  and  oil,  and  may  be  compared 
with  them.  In  color  painting,  they  pursued  their  own  ways  of  making 
what  they  thought  beautiful,  and  it  must  be  frankly  confessed,  judging 
from  our  standards,  the  best  of  them  succeeded  very  rarely.  This  it  is  that 
gives  high  value  to  the  limited  number  of  successful  examples.  But  the 
reader  who  has  not  studied  the  works  themselves  must  bear  in  mind  that 
this  was  an  art  of  painting  which  has  no  parallelism  with  that  art  which, 
at  this  same  time,  had  its  grandest  triumphs  from  the  pencils  of  Albert 
Diirer  in  Germany  and  Raphael  Sanzio  in  Italy.  Originality  is  not  a 
special  characteristic  of  any  of  the  majolica  painters.  Their  business 
was  to  make  pottery  for  sale.  They  compelled  to  their  uses  the  designs  of 
other  artists,  notably  of  the  German  and  Italian  engravers  of  their  own 
and  preceding  periods.  The  potters  who  employed  them,  or  the  artist- 
potters  themselves,  desired  chiefly  success  as  merchants,  not  as  painters. 
Xanto's  work  was  evidently  exceedingly  popular  in  his  day,  and,  whatever 
made  it  so,  it  is  noteworthy  that  many  lovers  of  art,  who  have  not  been 
accustomed  to  the  study  of  majolica,  are  now  more  attracted  to  his  works 
in  general  than  to  those  of  any  other  majolica  painter.  Mr.  Marryat, 
whose  standard  is  probably  his  own,  says  of  Xanto :  "His  drawing  is  very 
correct,  his  coloring  rich,  his  carnations  yellowish,  heightened  with  bian- 
chetto;  the  hair  of  his  ladies  light,  often  composed  of  plaits  fastened  in 
front ;  the  foliage  of  the  trees  executed  in  a  bluish  green,  with  the  lights 
of  a  pale  green,  and  the  trunks  black  hatched  with  yellow,  which  produce 
a  very  good  effect.  *  *  *  The  vestments  are  generally  blue  or  yellow, 
varied  with  a  purplish  or  violet  color,  and  there  is  invariably  some  gar- 
ment of  the  greenish  blue.'" 

Both  the  gentlemen  quoted  are  high  authorities,  and  thorough  stu- 
dents of  the  art. 

Xanto  often  copied  engravings  after  Raphael  by  Marc  Antonio  and 
other  engravers.  The  subjects  were  mostly  from  ancient  history  and 
mythology.  He  signed  in  various  ways,  usually  with  some  such  abbrevia- 
tion of  his  name  as  F.  X.  A.  R.,  or  Fra.  Xanto  Av.  Bo.,  or  F.  Xanto  A. 
da  Rovujo.     His  latest  dated  work  is  1542. 


1(J0  MODERN  POTTERY. 


Among  the  products  of  Urbino  are  a  large  class  of  specimens  orna- 
mented with  grotesques,  chimseras,  etc.,  introduced  in  graceful  arabesques, 
or  Mattered  over  the  surfaces  of  pieces.  This  style  was  afterward  much 
used  in  the  work  of  Home.  It  was  also  copied  at  Ferrara.  It  differs  en- 
tirely from  that  style  known  as  a  candeliere,  used  also  at  Urbino,  Castel- 
Durante,  and  other  factories. 

Battista  Franco  made  designs  for  the  use  of  painters  on  majolica;  but 
ir  is  not  certain  that,  as  Passeri  states,  he  painted  on  the  pottery  himself. 
Many  of  the  artists  of  the  Italian  schools  may  have  been  interested  in  the 
majolica  painters  and  their  work,  and  it  is  possible  that  they  occasionally 
amused  themselves  with  trying  their  hands  at  the  art.  But  if  they  did, 
they  probably  produced  wretched  results.  The  experience  of  long  prac- 
tice was  needed  to  enable  any  one  to  paint  on  pottery  a  picture  which 
would  look  well  after  baking.  The  fact  that  many  of  Raphael's  works, 
engraved  by  Marc  Antonio,  are  found  copied  on  pottery,  led  to  the  erro- 
neous idea  that  the  great  artist  himself  painted  pottery.  The  common 
name,  Raffaelle  ware,  was  given  to  Italian  potteries  in  England  before 
they  had  become  subjects  of  study. 

The  Urbino  potteries  produced  ware  throughout  the  sixteenth  century, 
and  in  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth.  Francesco  Durantino  signs 
some  work  in  154-1:  perhaps  he  was  a  potter.  A  dish  is  in  the  Louvre 
signed  Ne  1551  fato  in  hotega  de  Guido  Merlmo,  but  there  is  little  in- 
formation concerning  this  Guido.  Cnesare  da  Faenza  worked  in  1536. 
Other  names  of  artists  or  potters  are  recorded,  but  they  are  unimportant. 
Xanto  seems  to  have  painted  for  a  potter  named  Francesco  Silvano,  as  in- 
dicated by  the  signature  on  a  plate,  one  of  Xanto's  finest  works  represent- 
ing the  Storming  of  Goleta,  formerly  in  the  Marryat  collection. 

Giorgio  Picchi  the  younger,  from  Castel-Durante,  painted  at  Urbino 
cupids  among  clouds. 

The  Patanazzis,  of  a  noble  family,  were  artists  of  the  later  period  in 
Urbino,  and  excellent  painters.  Alfonzo  Patanazzi  signed  ALF.  P.  F 
I  K15INI  1606.  Vicenzio,  last  known  of  the  family,  was  a  child  when  he 
began  work.  Passeri  cites  a  piece  signed  by  him,  in  1620,  di  eta  $  anni 
ft  <  i  led. 

A  remarkable  collection  of  majolica  is  in  Loretto,  belonging  to  the 
Santa  Casa.  It  consists  of  three  hundred  and  eighty-five  medicine  jars 
and  vases  which  belonged  to  the  spezieria  of  the  palace  of  the  dukes 
at  Urbino.  Probably  many  of  these  were  made  at  Castel-Durante,  and 
some  assign  them  chiefly  to  that  place.  The  finer  among  them  are  the 
work  of  the  Fontana  botega.     After  the  death  of  the  Duke   Francesco 


ITALY. 


161 


Maria,  in  1631,  this  collection  was  presented  to  the  Holy  House.  They 
are  arranged  in  two  rooms,  and  on  them  are  paintings  of  scenes  sacred 
and  profane.  On  eighty-five  of  them  are  children  playing  games.  A 
grand  duke  of  Tuscany  once  offered  for  these  jars  an  equal  number  of 
silver  vases  of  equal  weight,  and  Louis  XIV.  is  said  to  have  offered  for 
five  of  them,  painted  with  the  Four  Evangelists  and  St.  Paul,  five  golden 
statues  of  the  same  persons.  Battista  Franco  and  Raffaelle  Colle  made 
the  designs  for  many  of  these,  and  Orazio  Fontana  painted  them. 


111.  Dish:  The  Judgment  of  Paris,  by  Patanazzi.     (Urbino.     Castellani  Coll.) 

After  the  days  of  the  Patanazzi  the  art  in  Urbino  utterly  decayed. 
On  the  whole,  it  may  be  said  with  some  assurance  that  it  never  had  the 
qualities  of  a  permanent  art.  It  was  peculiar  to  an  age  and  a  people,  and 
when  the  age  changed  it  was  no  longer  to  the  taste  of  the  people.  Long 
afterward,  in  1773,  we  find  a  lamp  in  pottery  which  an  inscription  states 
to  be  of  the  "fabric  of  fine  majolica  of  Monsieur  Rolet  in  Urbino,  28 
April  1773."  A  Frenchman  established  a  pottery  where  Orazio  and  Xanto 
had  worked,  but  whether  he  succeeded  or  failed  we  know  not.  He  seems 
to  have  made  wares  in  the  modern  styles  of  Moustiers,  in  France,  and  per- 
haps of  other  works. 

Pesako. — The  Duchy  of  Urbino  included  within  its  territories  four 
of  the  most  celebrated  of  the  majolica  factories — Pesaro,  Castel-Durante, 

11 


162  MUlUAtX  POTTERY. 


Gubbio,  and  Urbino.  The  history  of  the  potter's  art  in  these  places  goes 
back  to  the  Roman  period.  In  Pesaro  there  were  probably  potteries 
where  wares  more  or  less  rude  or  artistic  have  been  made  with  little  in- 
terruption from  the  periods  of  antiquity.  Some  of  the  earliest  fabrics  of 
modern  times,  built  into  the  walls  of  churches,  and  other  extremely  early 
pieces,  were  produced  here. 

Passeri,  a  resident  of  Pesaro,  writing  in  the  middle  of  the  last  century, 
his  "Istoria  delle  Pitture  in  Maiolica  fatte  in  Pesaro  e  in  Luoghi  Cir- 
convicini,"  gives  the  most  important  historical  notices  now  extant  of' the 
art  in  his  ancestral  city.  He  traces  the  potter's  art  there  from  the  Roman 
times  down  to  his  own,  in  1752,  wTith  a  long  mediaeval  break  in  the  suc- 
cession. There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  painted  wares  with  lead  glaze 
were  made  here  at  an  early  date.  Churches  were  decorated  with  glazed 
bacini  in  the  fourteenth  century.  JVlezza-majolica  was  largely  produced 
here  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and  probably  in  the  fifteenth.  Passeri 
speaks  of  a  plate  with  a  picture  of  Horatius  Codes,  on  which  was  in- 
scribed "made  in  Pesaro,  1451."  No  other  dated  specimen  is  known 
prior  to  1510,  at  which  time  the  enamelled,  lustred,  and  painted  majolica 
was  made  in  .greatest  perfection  in  the  same  duchy. 

The  earliest  dated  piece  of  Pesaro  work  now  known  is  in  the  posses- 
sion of  Mr.  Fortnum,  who  says,  "  It  is  a  fruit  dish,  on  which  is  painted 
the  creation  of  animals  by  the  Almighty,  who,  moving  in  the  midst,  is 
surrounded  by  animals  rising  out  of  the  ground;  a  distant  landscape  with 
a  town  (!)  on  the  side  of  a  steep  mountain  forms  the  background."  The 
legend  written  on  the  back  is  not  very  clear,  but  is  the  title  of  the  picture, 
which  is  perhaps  intended  to  illustrate  the  passage  in  St.  John's  Gospel, 
••  By  him  all  things  were  made."  It  seems  to  be  Chri*vit*  cmimdIMs 
Christtus  fatto  m  pescwo.  We  have  placed  stars  in  place  of  two  doubt- 
ful letters.     Mr.  Fortnum  reads  the  word  Chriawite. 

The  majolica  artists  were  in  general  poor  writers  and  worse  orthog- 
raphers.  Their  inscriptions  are  often  illegible,  and  when  legible  are  fre- 
quently misspelled. 

Passeri  is  the  authority  for  assigning  to  Pesaro  early  works  with  the 
lustre  known  as  madreperla.  This  claim  has  been  disputed  by  some,  in 
favor  of  G-ubbio  or  Diruta;  but  while  the  question  is  involved  in  some 
uncertainty,  there  is  nothing  to  disprove  the  evidence  of  Passeri,  a  resi- 
dent of  Pesaro  a  hundred  years  ago,  with  means  of  knowledge  which  we 
may  not  possess.  IK'  says  that  about  1450  the  glaze  began  to  improve, 
when  pieces  were  produced  decorated  with  arabesque  borders  enclosing 
arms,  portraits,  and  heads,  outlined  with    manganese    and    colored  with 


ITALY.  163 

madreperla  lustre,  leaving  the  faces  white,  and  that  it  was  not  till  about 
1500  that  the  finer  work  on  stanniferous  enamel  was  begun. 

Dishes  are  known  with  the  mark  In  la  botega  dl  Maestro  Glrolamo 
da  la  Gablee  in,  Pesaro,  and  others  In  botega  dl  Maestro  Gironamo 
1512,  both,  as  Passeri  states,  by  the  same  maker.  There  is  a  piece  dated 
1550  with  the  inscription,  "  Made  in  the  bottega  of  Master  Baldagsar 
Vasaro  of  Pesaro,  by  the  hand  of  Terenzio  son  of  Master  Matteo  boc- 
calaroy  These  are  the  only  names  known  of  artists  or  potters  at  Pesaro, 
although  the  number  of  its  products  was  very  large.  In  1567,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  decline  of  the  art,  the  Duke  Guid'  Ubaldo  II.  granted  a 
license  to  Jacomo  Lanf ranco,  who  had  begun  to  place  gilding  on  pottery. 
It  is  not  certain  that  any  pieces  of  this  ware  exist,  though  M.  Jacque- 
mart  confidently  regards  as  such  a  baptismal  shell,  with  chimera  head, 
enamelled  with  blue  on  which  are  broad  touches  of  brilliant  gold,  and 
other  pieces,  among  which  are  some  with  papal  and  other  arms,  and  oth- 
ers with  arabesques  in  gold  and  white. 

Before  1500  Pesaro  produced  in  mezza- majolica  pieces  with  orna- 
ments in  relief,  borders  of  fruit  in  the  yellow  lustre  on  white  ground, 
and  with  the  ordinary  centres,  heads,  portraits,  arms,  and  saints. 

Passeri  claims  for  one  artist,  now  unknown,  at  Pesaro  the  execution 
of  a  class  of  dishes  regarded  as  the  best  works  in  mezza-majolica.  These 
are  thick,  heavy  dishes,  large,  the  projection  around  the  foot  perforated 
with  two  holes  for  a  string  by  which  to  hang  them,  glazed  yellow  on  the 
back,  decorated  with  half-length  portraits  of  princes  before  1500.  Rims 
are  bordered  with  imbricated,  checkered,  or  striped  patterns,  colors  are 
yellow,  and  the  lustre  is  iridescent.  Mr.  Marry  at  doubts  the  propriety  "of 
assigning  them  to  one  artist  and  period,  and  regards  the  description  as  a 
general  characteristic  of  majolica  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury. It  is  interesting  to  remark  that  here,  as  in  Delft  and  other  modern 
works,  we  find  the  same  perforations  for  the  same  purpose  which  we 
found  in  Phenician  work  two  thousand  years  earlier. 

In  1171,  Pope  Sextus  IV.  wrote  to  Costanzo  Sforza,  Lord  of  Pesaro, 
thanking  him  for  a  present  of  earthen  vases.  Lorenzo  de'  Medici  also 
wrote  to  Robert  Malatesta,  of  Pesaro,  thanking  him  for  like  pieces,  and 
says,  "They  please  me  entirely  by  their  perfection  and  rarity,  being  quite 
novelties  in  these  parts,  and  are  valued  more  than  if  silver,  the  donor's 
arms  serving  daily  to  recall  their  origin."  The  novelty  was  probably  the 
lustre,  which  was  then  unknown  at  Florence. 

The  art  declined  at  Pesaro,  as  elsewhere  in  Italy,  after  1560.  Passeri 
ascribes  its  decay  in  part  to  what  he  thought  very  bad  taste — a  preva- 


L64 


MODh'L'X   POTTERY. 


lent  taste,  however,  in  later  times  —  the  admiration  of  Chinese  porcelain 
which  had  begun  to  come  into  Italy.  But  Pesaro  continued  to  make  ]  lot- 
tery down  to  the  present  century.  In  1718  there  was  only  one  potter 
there,  Alt'oiizo  Marzi.  In  1757,  Giuseppe  Bertolucci  and  Francesco  di 
Fattori  established  a  pottery,  but  its  existence  was  short.  In  1703,  an- 
other was  established  by  Antonio  Casali,  Filippo  Antonio  Caligari,  and 
Pietro  Lei  da  Sassuolo,  the  latter  an  artist  on  pottery  from  Modena,  and 
this  establishment  produced  excellent  work  in  modern  styles. 

Castel-Durante. — It  is  probable  that  painted  wares  were  made  here 
as  early  as  the  thirteenth  ce/iitury.  The  early  works,  lead -glazed  mezza- 
majoliea,  were  coarse,  painted  with  arms  and  half -figures,  the  flesh  white, 
and  the  dresses  gaudy.  Enamelled  ware  was  made  quite  early,  possibly 
before   1500.      The  factory  reached  its  highest   period  about  1525-'30, 

made  good  work  till  1580,  and 
continued  producing  wares  in 
the  next  century. 

Although  Piccolpassi  re- 
sided here,  whose  work  on  the 
general  art  affords  much  detail- 
ed information,  we  are  left  in 
comparative  ignorance  of  the 
artists  of  Castel-Durante.  Yet 
it  was  the  mother  of  the  great 
artists,  the  Fontanas,  who  went 
hence  to  Urbino,  and  "  from 
Durante"  was  the  title  of  art- 
ists in  Venice,  Rome,  and  in 
France.  Signor  Rafaelli  sug- 
gests that  many  wares  known 
as  from  Urbino  were  only  from 


115.  1)\A\:  Flight  into  Egypt.     (Castel-Durante,  1526. 
Castellani  Coll.) 


that  duchy,  and  may  have  been  from  Castel-Durante.  Its  products  were 
not  inferior  to  those  of  any  other  botega  in  Italy.  The  earliest  known 
piece  is  a  bowl,  the  ground  a  rich  dark  blue,  the  decoration  grotesques, 
among  which  are  the  arms  of  the  Rovere  family,  over  them  the  papal 
tiara  and  keys,  trophies  of  books,  festoons  of  drapery,  and  a  boy-angel 
holding  the  Veronica,  or  handkerchief  with  the  Saviour's  face.  On  two 
labels  is  inscribed  Tu.  II.  Pon.  Mass.  Tu.  es.  sacerdos.  ~>  eter.  It  was  made 
for  Pope  Julius  II.  Mr.  Robinson  says,  "  In  the  design  and  execution  of 
the  painting,  splendor  of  color,  and  perfection  of  enamel  glaze,  this  mag- 
nificent piece  is  a  triumph  of  the  art." 


ITALY.  165 

Castel-Durante  wares,  as  well  as  those  of  Urbino,  Faenza,  Gubbio,  and 
other  factories,  are  often  decorated  with  the  forms  of  monsters,  dolphins, 
dragons  with  human  heads,  sea-horses,  masks,  and  other  devices,  executed 
with  great  freedom  of  drawing.  When  these  are  arranged  in  symmet- 
rical patterns  with  foliations,  the  decoration  is  called  a  candeliere,  and  it 
is  common  to  call  the  objects  themselves  candelieri.  This  peculiar  dec- 
oration was  a  remarkable  growth.  It  came  from  a  union  of  many  styles, 
of  the  widest  divergence  and  far  separate  places  of  origin.  Persia  and 
Pompeii,  Pome,  Damascus,  and  mediaeval  Europe,  all  contributed.  The 
adaptation  was  not  original  with  the  majolica  painters.  The  same  gen- 
eral designs  had  been  favorites  with  engravers  from  the  fifteenth  century, 
continuing  in  the  sixteenth  ;  and  the  fine  issues  of  the  printing-presses  of 
Germany,  France,  and  Italy  abounded  in  examples  which  the  majolica 
decorators  eagerly  seized  upon  as  admirably  adapted  to  their  purposes. 
They  had  been  used  in  illuminations  and  in  metal  work.  But  nowhere 
are  they  so  striking  as  in  engravings,  where  they  appear  in  white  on  black, 
such  as  the  works  of  Urse  Graff,  at  Basle,  or  so  beautiful  as  on  the  majol- 
ica in  grisaille,  or  in  chiar-oscuro  on  dark-blue  grounds.  The  triumphs  of 
the  majolica  paintings  are  in  these  decorations,  which  require  no  special 
education  in  Italian  pottery  to  be  appreciated  and  admired  by  all  lovers  of 
art.     No  defects  of  color  mar  their  beauty. 

Many  of  the  pharmacy  jars  found  in  collections  are  attributed  to 
Castel-Durante.  The  paste  of  the  wares  is  of  a  pale -buff  color,  and  the 
glaze  rich  and  pure.  Most  of  the  dishes,  whose  sole  decoration  is  a  large 
portrait,  are  supposed  to  be  of  this  fabric,  but  this  is  not  certain.  Mr. 
Fortnum  thinks  many  of  the  pieces  ornamented  with  oak  branches,  yellow 
on  blue  ground,  and  sometimes  in  relief,  surrounding  a  small  medallion 
central  portrait  or  head,  are  also  of  Castel-Durante.  Of  the  fine  specimens 
in  the  Santa  Casa  at  Loretto,  a  large  number  are  attributed  to  this  fabric, 
as  is  also  the  making  of  cups  from  the  dust  swept  up  in  the  Holy  House. 

Gubbio. — The  interest  attaching  to  the  work  of  Gubbio  centres  wholly 
on  the  Master  Giorgio  Andreoli  and  the  gorgeous  fabrics  in  lustre  which 
he  produced.  He  was  a  gentleman  of  Pavia,  who  came  to  Gubbio  about 
1485. 

AVe  have  already  seen  that  Passeri  claimed  for  Pesaro  works  in  the 
madreperla  lustre,  and  that  others  ascribed  them  to  Diruta.  The  lustres 
of  Giorgio  were  another  affair  from  the  madreperla,  though  possibly  a 
growth  out  of  that.  They  are  as  brilliant  as  gems,  the  ruby  not  a  ruby 
color,  but  varying  in  shades  from  deep  claret  towards  the  ruby,  gleaming 
with  more  than  the  splendor  of  polished  stones ;  the  silver  giving  superb 


166 


MODERN  POTTERY. 


effects  like  moonlight  on  white  water;  the  green,  rarest  of  all  and  most 
gem-like  of  all;  the  gold  and  the  half  shades  of  various  tints  always 
superb. 

Giorgio  had  done  some  work  in  relief  in  the  style  of  the  Delia  Tiob- 
bias ;  but  when  or  how  he  became  possessed  of  the  secret  of  these  lustres 
is  unknown.  Passeri  says  he  brought  the  ruby  lustre  with  him  from  Pa- 
via  to  Gubbio.  In  the  South  Kensington  Museum  is  a  St.  Sebastian  in 
relief,  attributed  to  him,  but  not  signed,  lustred  with  gold  and  ruby,  dated 
1501.     lie  probably  painted  on  majolica  also  scrolls,  trophies,  flowers,  and 


116.  Dish:  Chiar-oscuro.     (Castel-Durante.     Castellani  Coll.) 

foliage,  grotesques,  and  ornamental  arabesques,  which  he  heightened  with 
lustre,  giving  gorgeous  effects. 

It  is  now  generally  supposed  that  he  learned  the  art  of  lustre  from  an 
unknown  predecessor.  The  South  Kensington  Museum  has  three  dishes 
whose  lustre  is  tine,  even  superior  in  the  gold  to  that  of  Giorgio,  which, 
Mr.  Robinson  thinks,  are  by  this  unknown  predecessor.  The  blue  color 
used  by  this  unknown  artist  has  peculiar  strength,  and  is  a  full  dark  in- 
digo, by  which  his  work  is  distinguished. 

Mr.  Robinson,  in  studying  the  Soulages  collection,  arrived  at  these  con- 
clusions in  regard  to  the  work  of  Giorgio: 


ITALY.  167 

1.  That  he  did  not  invent  the  ruby  lustre,  but  succeeded  to  and  mo- 
nopolized the  use  of  a  pigment  used  by  an  earlier  artist  of  Gubbio. 

2.  That  the  signed  works  were  really  painted  by  several  distinct  hands. 

3.  That  his  own  work  may  be  distinguished  with  approximate  cer- 
tainty. 

-i.  That  probably  nearly  all  the  "istoriate"  pieces  (1530 -'50)  of  Ur- 
bino,  Castel-Durante,  or  other  fabrics,  enriched  with  lustre,  were  so  deco- 
rated by  a  subsequent  operation,  at  the  Giorgio  botega. 

5.  Consequently,  the  use  of  lustre  colors  was  mainly  confined  to  Gub- 
bio, where  painted  wares  by  Xanto  and  other  artists  working  at  Urbino 
and  other  places  were  sent  to  be  lustred. 

These  conclusions,  especially  the  second,  and  the  various  character  of 
wares  signed  by  him,  indicate  that  Giorgio  became  the  proprietor  or  head 
of  a  considerable  establishment,  at  which  the  work  of  placing  lustre  on 
wares  was  carried  on,  nominally  by  him  ;  that  this  establishment  employed 
artists,  and  produced  painted  and  lustred  wrork,  on  which  Giorgio  placed 
his  name,  as  he  had  right  to  do.  But  the  fact  that  his  name  is  on  a  piece 
does  not  imply  that  he  painted  or  lustred  it.  The  painting,  if  any,  of  his 
own  hands  must  be  judged  by  the  characteristics.  It  is  not  impossible 
that  it  was  the  practice  of  his  establishment  to  buy,  from  other  potteries 
or  from  artists,  painted  majolica,  to  be  lustred  and  sold  from  the  Gubbio 
factory.  Pieces  are  known  which  have  the  mark  of  Giorgio,  with  the 
mercantile  sign  of  trade  added.  The  factory  may  have  used  such  a  sign 
on  goods  made  for  the  public  market.  .  In  the  Castellani  collection  are 
two  well -painted  dishes,  which  have  such  a  peculiar,  unfinished  look  in 
large  spaces,  that  we  have  no  doubt  the}'  were  intended  to  be  finished 
with  lustre,  but  never  received  it. 

Signed  work  of  Maestro  Giorgio  is  known  from  151!)  onward.  His 
best  pieces  were  generally  signed  Maestro  Giorgio  da  Ugubio  with  the 
date,  but  he  used  various  short  forms  of  signature.  The  piece  of  his 
work  which  has  the  highest  reputation  is  a  dish  signed  and  dated  1525. 
The  subject  is  a  group  of  fifteen  female  figures  bathing  in  a  forest,  a  city 
in  the  distance.  It  has  been  called  Diana  and  her  Nymphs,  but  is  rather 
more  modern  in  intent.  The  bath  has  a  marble  front,  with  winged 
cherubs  and  grotesque  heads  lustred.  The  painting  is  not  remarkable, 
but  the  border  is  very  fine  —  dragons  and  serpents  with  human  heads, 
trophies,  cornucopia1,  ribbons  and  foliage  winding  in  a  fine  arabesque,  on 
which  the  richest  lustre  is  expended.  This  specimen,  lately  in  the  pos- 
session of  the  Baronne  de  Parpart,  in  Switzerland,  is  said  to  have  been  sold 
recently  for  eight  hundred  and  eighty  pounds — in  round  numbers,  four 


168 


M<>I>i:i;X    I'OTTEllY. 


thousand  five  hundred  dollars.  Another- large  dish,  signed  in  full,  and 
dated  October  20th,  I r> ^ i  ► ,  is  without  border  ornament,  the  subject — the 
Judgment  of  Paris — covering  the  entire  surface.  The  trunks  of  large 
trees  sweep  across  the  dish  with  a  bold  effect.  The  colors  are  chiefly 
bine  and  green,  with  deep  red  in  the  slight  draperies  of  the  figures.  The 
lustre  on  this  piece,  as  on  many  others,  is  laid  on  in  dashes  here  and  there, 
scattered  like  moss  on  the  ground,  roughly  lined  on  the  trunks  of  trees, 
and  so  disposed,  in  general,  as  to  produce  a  bizarre  effect,  not  at  all  ad- 
mirable, but  certainly  odd.     A  large   dish  in  the  Fountaine  collection 


117.  Dish.     (Castel-Durante.     Castellani  Coll.) 

signed  Mo  G  1525  has  also  no  border  work,  but  the  three  Graces,  stand- 
ing under  palm-trees,  cover  the  entire  field.  A  dish,  with  Hercules  and 
Anteeus,  in  the  Castellani  collection  (111.  120),  is  one  of  the  finest  speci- 
mens of  Maestro  Giorgio. 

This  artist  was  living  in  1552,  but  his  latest  elated  works  are  in  1537. 
A  piece  dated  1541  has  been  mentioned,  but  its  existence  is  not  certain. 
His  son  Yincenzio  probably  succeeded  to  the  management  of  the  work. 
Pieces  are  known  signed  with  the  letter  N  in  various  forms,  which  Mr. 
Robinson  suggests  includes  the  letters  YIN,  and  may  be  the  monogram 
of  Yincenzio,  who  was  known  as  Maestro  Cencio.  Brancaleoni  says  lie 
worked  with  his  father  till  1536.     Mr.  Fortnum  is  of  opinion   that  al- 


ITALY.  169 

though  Giorgio  may  have  occasionally  applied  the  lustre  pigments  with 
his  brush  to  pieces  painted  by  artists  at  other  places,  the  majority  of  these 
were  executed  by  his  sun  or  assistants,  and  that  this  practice  did  not  begin 
till  1525. 

Mr.  Robinson  describes  two  small  Gubbio  cups,  with  figures  in  relief, 
on  which  is  a  pale-yellow  lustre,  outlined  with  blue  on  white  ground.  A 
bas-relief  in  the  Louvre,  the  Virgin  and  Child,  lustred,  is  signed  with  a  C, 
and  below  it  Perestinus.  Other  lustred  pieces  are  signed  with  a  simple 
P.  A  piece  dated  1557,  subject  Venus  and  Cupid,  is  signed  In  Guhhio 
per  memo  di  Meiestro  Prestino.  All  these  are  supposed  to  be  from  the 
hand  or  shop  of  Maestro  Prestino,  dated  pieces  being  from  1530  to  1537. 
Mr.  Robinson  says,  "  The  works  of  this  master  are  interesting  as  exhibit- 
ing a  return  to  the  style  of  the  early  Gothic  masters  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, the  iridescent  lustre  being  identical  with  that  of  the  painters  of  the 
baeili  amatoria  pieces.  It  is  possible  that  Maestro  Prestino's  fabric  pro- 
duced the  coarse  late  specimens,  enriched  with  the  yellow  lustre,  fre- 
quently occurring.  He  is,  at  any  rate,  the  most  recent  master  hitherto 
identified  using  the  lustre  colors." 

Piccolpassi  professes  to  explain  how  the  lustres  were  produced.  He 
gives  the  pigment,  as  he  learned  it  from  Maestro  Vincenzio  of  Gubbio,  as 
terra  rossa  3,  bolo  arminio  1,  feretto  di  Spagna  2;  and  another  pigment, 
terra  rossa  6,  feretto  di  Spagna  3,  cinabrio  3,  adding  a  "  carlino  "  of  silver. 
A  peculiar  furnace  was  built  in  which  the  pieces  after  being  baked  were 
to  be  lustred.  This  process  wTas  done  by  exposing  them  to  the  smoke  of 
burning  fagots  of  wTood  and  broom.  The  carbon  of  the  smoke  combin- 
ing with  the  metallic  ingredients  of  the  pigments  left  the  brilliant  lustre 
in  a  thin  surface  on  the  pottery.  Piccolpassi  says  that  the  process  was 
expensive,  for  sometimes  only  five  or  six  pieces  in  a  hundred  were  suc- 
cessful. 

This  statement,  however,  must  be  regarded  as  too  sweeping.  It  is 
not  probable,  if  the  risk  of  failure  were  so  great,  that  the  Gubbio  factory 
would  have  received,  as  they  did,  the  finished  works  of  eminent  artists  in 
other  places,  to  be  subjected  to  a  process  which  would  be  successful  only 
by  chances  so  very  small.  There  was  doubtless  very  great  certainty  in 
the  work  which  was  applied  to  the  paintings  of  Xanto  without  injuring 
them,  and  without  producing,  so  far  as  we  know  from  examples,  any 
semi-successful  or  doubtful  results. 

The  art  of  making  the  lustre  was  lost,  or  ceased  to  be  popular,  soon 
after  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century.  From  1560  to  1570  it  de- 
clined, and  soon  disappeared.     It  has  been  sought  in  modern  times,  with 


170 


MODERN  POTTERY. 


much  labor  and  little  success.  Luigi  Carocci,  a  chemist  of  Gubbio,  is  said 
to  have  approximated  Dearly  to  the  old  work.  Mr.  James  De  Morgan,  in 
London,  lias  within  the  past  two  years  produced  some  superb  specimens 
of  the  gold  and  ruby  lustre,  often  fully  equalling  the  old  Gubbio,  and  a 
silver  or  opalescent  lustre  which  is  exceedingly  fine,  and  in  many  speci- 
mens not  inferior  to  the  best  Saracen  and  Italian  works. 

Perugia. — The  old  name  Peroschia  occurs  on  an  oval  cistern  in  the 
Fountaine  collection,  painted  with  subjects  after  Giulio  Romano,  and 
dated  1553.  At  Citta  di  Castello,  near  Perugia,  early  ware  was  made,  and 
much  of  the  sgraffiato  ware  has  been  assigned  to  it. 

St.  Quirico.  —  Terchi,   of   Bassano,  established    or   found   a   factory 

here  about  1714,  which  was  the 
property  of  Cardinal  Chigi. 
Mr.  Fortnum  says  the  wares 
were  only  made  for  presents. 
M.  Jacquemart  says  Piezzen- 
tile,  a  painter,  was  first  director, 
Bartolomeo  Terchi  the  next, 
and  Ferd.  Maria  Campani,  of 
Siena,  was  a  painter. 

Borgo  San  Sepolciiro.  — 
Giovanni  Battista  Mercati,  a 
native  of  this  place,  a  painter  of 
some  note,  whose  etchings  are 
known  and  prized,  signs  a  plate 
painted  with  a  stag  hunt,  blue 
118.  Gubbio  Lustivd  Dish.    (Castellani  Coll.)  on  white,  dated  1649.     A  lamp 

is  known  dated  1771,  and  signed  Mart.  Boletus  fecit,  with  the  name  of 
the  place.     We  have  met  Monsieur  Polet  also  at  Urbino  in  1773. 

Faenza. — There  is  doubt  whether  the  French  and  English  languages 
derived  their  word  faience  from  this  place.  There  is  a  French  town, 
Finance,  which  once  made  pottery.  It  may  have  come  from  that;  and 
other  derivations  are  suggested.  In  French, faience  formerly  implied  all 
kinds  of  pottery  and  porcelain.  Its  meaning  is  now  more  limited.  In 
English  it  includes  all  decorated  pottery  except  porcelain  and  majolica. 
But  the  original  meaning  of  majolica  is  not  determined.  Mr.  Fortnum 
proposes  to  confine  it  to  lustred  wares  as  its  original  signification;  but 
the  idea  that  this  was  its  original  meaning  is  chiefly  based  on  Scaliger's 
statement,  and  Scaliger's  testimony  is  not  clear,  as  we  have  seen  here- 
tofore. 


ITALY. 


171 


As  early  as  1455  Faenza  made  "  white  and  brilliant "  wares.  Piccol- 
passi,  a  Durantine  potter  himself,  in  the  day  of  the  best  work,  1548  a.d., 
gives  to  Faenza  the  highest  rank  in  vases.  It  was  an  ancient  seat  of  the 
potter's  art,  and  its  products  were  large  and  widely  scattered.  Much 
doubt  exists  as  to  the  earliest  dated  specimens.  The  1475  plaque  in  the 
Hotel  de  Cluny,  assigned  to  Caffagiuolo,  is  by  some  assigned  to  Faenza. 
A  service  of  seventeen  pieces  in  the  Correr  Museum,  at  Venice,  signed 
Salomons  1482,  is  assigned  to  Faenza.  Pavement  tiles  in  a  chapel  of  the 
church  of  St.  Petronio,  at  Bologna,  of  date  1487,  signed  (as  Signor  Frati, 
of  Bologna,  reads  it)  Bologniesus  Betini  fecit,  are  assigned  to  Faenza,  the 
word  Faventcie  frequently  occurring  on  them,  and  a  label  bearing  Petrus 
Andre  Defave.  This  pavement  is  well  painted,  with  trophies,  animals, 
heads,  the  keys  of  St.  Peter,  and  other  devices.  Among  the  wares  of 
Faenza  none  are  more  important  than  those  known  as  of  the  Casa  Pirota, 
of  which  the  distinctive  mark  is  a  circle  crossed  with  two  lines,  or  a 
crescent  so  crossed,  or  both  combined.  Other  marks  are  on  pieces  which 
are  evidently  of  the  same  fabric.  The  grounds  are  blue,  and  the  borders 
are  in  shaded  white,  grotesques  and  arabesques.  These  wares  are  exceed- 
ingly beautiful,  and  of  a  class  wholly  distinct  from  the  green  and  yellow 
wares  of  the  Urbino  and  other  potteries.  The  blue  grounds  are  rich  in 
tone ;  the  decorations,  largely  derived  from  the  illuminations  and  wood-cut 
ornaments  of  this  and  the  preceding  periods,  are  admirably  executed  and 
effective.  The  centres  have  various  subjects,  and  the  work  of  several 
artists  is  evident  in  them.  They  are  of  the 
early  part  of  the  sixteenth  century.  One  of 
the  painters  is  commonly  known  as  the  "green 
man,"  an  excellent  artist,  signing  B.  B.  F.  F. 
Another  artist  used  the  same  signature. 

There  are  fine  works  of  an  artist  who  signs 
Baldasara  Mcmara  (his  dishes  have  yellow 
backs  with  red  lines),  and  also  of  the  painter 
of  the  service  in  the  Correr  Museum,  perhaps 
the  same  who  signs  other  pieces  F.  R. 

A  great  variety  of  works  Mere  produced. 
Drug  or  pharmacy  jars  decorated  with  bright 
blue  and  yellow,  with  medallion  heads  or  other 
designs  on  the  sides,  are  frequent,  on  some  of 
which  the  name  Faenza  leaves  no  doubt  of 
their  origin.  The  generally  characteristic  feature  of  the  products  is  the 
dark-blue  ground,  which  is  richer  in  tone  than  that  of  any  other  fabric. 


119. 


Boccala  of  Gubbio;  lustred. 
(Castellani  Coll.) 


172  MODERN   I'OTTERY. 


Decorations  in  dark  blue  on  lighter  bine  are  common,  in  the  "berretino" 
style.  The  backs  of  the  plates  are  also  decorated  in  yellow  and  bine 
with  circles,  scrolls,  and  marks  of  color.  Bas-reliefs  were  made  at  an 
early  period. 

Some  of  the  wares  of  Faenza  had  not  the  distinctive  characteristics, 
and  cannot  be  separated  from  other  works. 

The  manufacture  passed  into  decadence  in  the  latter  part  of  the  six- 
teenth century.  Coarse  and  common  wares  seem  to  have  been  made  at 
a  later  period,  and  there  is  a  modern  fabric  at  Faenza  which  reproduces 
the  old  work. 

Ravenna. — A  plate  with  bluish-gray  enamel,  painted  in  blue  camaieu 
with  Amphion  borne  by  dolphins,  is  mentioned  by  M.  Jacquemart  as 
bearing  the  name  llavena.  Another  plate  with  a  mark  including  the 
letters  R.  V.  A.,  is  assigned  to  the  same  place. 

Foeli. — In  the  last  years  of  the  fifteenth  and  first  of  the  sixteenth 
century  there  was  a  factory  of  excellent  majolica  here,  supposed  to  have 
been  of  one  Maestro  Jeronimo,  whose  name  is  on  fine  dishes,  the  decora- 
tions of  which  show  some  lingering  love  of  Saracenic  styles.  Piccolpassi 
refers  to  the  painted  majolica  of  Forli,  and  it  was  doubtless  esteemed. 

Rimini. — All  the  majolica  known  of  this  place  is  dated  1535.  The 
number  of  specimens  is  not  great,  and  most  of  these  are  perhaps  of  one 
service.  On  a  plate  in  the  Hotel  Clnny  are  Adam  and  Eve;  on  one  in 
the  British  Museum,  The  Fall  of  Phaeton.  The  work  is  of  a  good  char- 
acter of  painting,  with  strong  contrasts  of  color,  free  drawing,  and  the 
glaze  is  remarkably  tine,  so  rich  as  to  be  a  characteristic.  A  jug,  in  the 
University  Museum  at  Bologna,  is  signed  Giulio  da  Urbino  in  hottega  di 
Mo  Alessandro  hi  Artmin. 

Rome. — Diomede,  of  Castel-Durante,  came  to  Rome,  and  established 
works.  A  vase  is  known  with  the  name  of  Paolo  Savino,  in  1600,  and  an 
inscription  on  another  states  that  it  was  made  in  the  shop  of  M.  Diomede 
Durante  in  Rome.  Their  decoration  is  in  grotesques  in  yellow  and  blue 
on  white  ground,  in  Urbino  fashion.  Giovanni  Volpato  established  a  pot- 
tery in  L790,  at  which  he  produced  potteries  and  porcelains,  including 
terraglia  y< rniciata,  which  was  a  sort  of  queen's-ware  like  the  English, 
and  some  of  it  remarkably  good.  Statuettes,  figures,  and  various  objects 
were  made  in  this  ware.  Occasionally  these  pieces  are  marked  G.  Vol- 
PATO  Roma,  impressed  in  the  clay. 

Dirvta. — Here,  Passeri  says,  was  made  a  beautiful  ware.  The  earliest 
specimen,  dated  L525,  resembles  Faenza  ware,  with  grotesques  on  blue 
ground.     The  only  known  artist  signs  a  piece,  now  in  the  Louvre  (the 


ITALY. 


173 


subject  from  "Orlando  Fnrioso"),  *  deruta  El  frate pemit,  1545.  He  is 
not  a  remarkable  painter.  But  fine  work  is  assigned  to  Diruta  in  various 
styles,  it  does  not  appear  on  what  authority.  Some  early  specimens  with  a 
golden  lustre  are  inscribed  in  Diruta.  From  this  it  was  once  argued  that 
all  the  pieces  with  madreperla  lustre  were  made  at  Diruta,  an  argument 
without  force.  The  assignment  of  many  of  these  works  may  be  consid- 
ered as  still  doubtful. 

Fabriano. — A  single  fine  work  dated  at  Fabriano,  1527,  and  signed 
with  a  mark  like  X,  is  the  only  evidence  of  a  fabric  here.  This  plate  was 
sold  at  auction  in  London  for  one  hundred  and  fourteen  pounds.  An- 
other from  the  same  fabric  was  sold  at  the  same  sale ;  and  yet  another  is 
known  with  the  mark  of  the  artist  as  on  the  first  mentioned.  All  are 
good  works,  the  one  a  picture  of  the  Madonna  della  Scala,  after  Marc  An- 
tonio's engraving  from  Raphael ;  another,  The  Rape  of  Proserpine. 


120.  Gubbio  Dish  :   Hercules  and  Antaeus,  by  Maestro  Giorgio.     (Castellan!  Coll.) 

Yiterbo. — Rough  work  is  known  of  this  place;  and  Diomeo,  an  art- 
ist's name,  in  1544. 

Loretto. — We  have  spoken  of  the  treasure  of  Urbino  and  Castel-Du- 
rante  wares  in  the  Casa  Santa.  They  used  to  sweep  up  here  the  accumu- 
lated dust  and  dirt  on  the  floor  of  the  house,  work  it  in  with  clay  to  make 
small  cups  and  bowls,  and  inscribe  them  outside  con.  pol.  di.  s.  casa  (with 


174:  MODERN  POTTERY. 


dust  of  the  llolv  House).  These  had  paintings  of  the  Virgin  and  Child. 
Holy  water  was  sometimes  mingled  with  the  dust,  in  which  cases  ht  aqua 
was  added  after  CON.  POL.     Possibly  these  were  made  at  Castel-Durante. 

Venice. — Although  it  has  been  conjectured  that  Venice  produced  pot- 
tery in  the  fifteenth  century,  nothing  is  known  of  its  work  until  1540, 
and  even  then  some  doubt  exists  as  to  the  correct  assignment  of  a  fine 
dish  so  dated.  A  large  dish,  dated  1546,  and  inscribed  "made  in  Venice," 
exhibits  the  Destruction  of  Troy,  painted  in  Urbino  style.  Another  dish 
— subject,  Moses  before  Pharaoh — is  inscribed  1568  Zenee  Domenigo  da 
Venecia  feci  in  la  botega  al  ponte  sito  del  andar  a  San  Polo.  On 
the  reverse  of  this  dish  is  a  tine  border  on  blue  ground.  Later  pieces  are 
known  by  Dionigi  Marini,  dated  1636.  The  earlier  wares  have  a  gray 
surface,  on  which  the  design  is  executed  in  blue  and  white.  Ornaments 
on  the  reverses  are  general. 

In  the  seventeenth  century  Venice  produced  thin  and  light  ware,  very 
sonorous,  with  ornaments  in  relief,  fruits  and  flowers  around  the  rim,  the 
colors  generally  blue  and  brown,  with  yellow  on  white  or  pale-blue  ground. 
These  were  sometimes  mistaken  for  enamelled  metal.  They  are  attrib- 
uted to  the  Bertolini  who  obtained  a  favorable  charter  from  the  senate  in 
1753. 

Tkeviso. — A  dish  with  a  curious  picture  of  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
lias  a  circular  mark,  stating  that  it  was  made  at  Treviso,  1538.  More 
modern  works  are  white,  with  reliefs,  blue,  green,  violet,  and  yellow,  or 
decorated  with  flowers.  Sgraffiati  wares  of  poor  character  were  made  in 
the  last  century. 

Cornaro. — Dishes  are  described,  of  grayish-blue  decoration,  the  mark 
the  shield  of  the  Cornari  family. 

Bassano. — Simone  Marinoni  founded  a  pottery  here  about  1510,  which 
produced  no  work  of  importance  until  the  brothers  Bartolomeo  and  An- 
tonio Terchi  took  it  about  1600,  and  made  some  good  faience  for  a  few 
years.  The  mark  of  the  crown,  Mr.  Chaffers  tells  us,  is  not  distinctive  of 
Bassano,  as  he  finds  it  on  other  ware.  Sir  William  Drake  says  ("  Vene- 
tian Ceramics,"  p.  4)  that  a  plate  of  1595  exists  signed  S.  M.,  for  Simone 
Marinoni.  lie  also  •  produces  evidence  that  the  sisters  Mana/rdi  estab- 
lished a  factory  about  1728  to  1735,  for  majolica  and  "latesini"  or 
"  crockery  "  in  general.  Another  factory  of  the  same  wares  was  founded 
in  1735  by  Giovanni  Antonio  Caffo.  Some  time  before  1753  Gio.  Maria 
Salmazzo  established  works  to  rival  those  of  Antonibon  at  Nove. 

Nove. — This  place  became  in  the  eighteenth  century  the  seat  of  pot- 
teries, from  which  much  interesting  work  has  proceeded.     In  1728  Gio- 


ITALY.  175 

vanni  Battista  Antonibon  established  a  pottery,  and  in  1732  opened  in 
Venice  a  shop  for  its  sale.  The  business  of  Nove  was  widely  extended. 
In  1741,  Pasqual  Antonibon  was  at  its  head.  In  1762,  his  son,  Giovanni 
Battista,  became  a  partner.  In  1802  they  leased  the  factory  to  Baroni. 
In  1825,  Giovanni  Battista  Antonibon,  with  his  son  Francesco,  again 
worked.     The  wares  are  now  produced  in  fine  modern  styles. 

The  early  work  included  all  kinds  of  ware,  services,  figures,  groups,  of 
large  and  small  size.  The  full  names  of  the  Antonibons  are  sometimes 
found  on  their  works. 

Candiana. — -No  such  place  is  known,  but  this  name,  with  date  1620,  is 
found  on  faience  with  Persian  designs.  The  letters  S.  F.  C.  are  also  on 
pieces,  and  names — as  ms.  dega  and  p.  a.  crosa — which  are  not  intelli- 
gible. These  wares  may  well  be  the  product  of  some  Venetian  factory, 
in  imitation  of  Saracen,  and  the  word  Candiana  have  some  allusion  to  the 
island  of  Candia. 

Padua. — Sir  William  Drake  cites  from  Lazari  the  statement  that  the 
potteries  of  Padua  were  in  a  street  called  the  Boecalarie.  There  was  a 
house,  Lazari  says,  not  long  since  restored,  in  which  a  few  years  ago  evi- 
dent signs  of  furnaces  were  found.  The  wralls  of  this  house  towards  the 
street  were  covered  with  alternate  white  and  blue  triangular  tiles,  within 
which  was  fixed  the  magnificent  disk  of  majolica,  fifty-two  centimetres  in 
diameter,  now  in  the  Padua  Museum,  showing  the  Madonna  on  a  throne 
between  St.  Roceo  and  St.  Lucia,  with  angels  and  an  escutcheon  above. 
The  ground  is  concave ;  the  figures — in  relief — are  white,  except  the  hair, 
which  is  slightly  yellow,  and  the  Virgin's  dress,  which  is  pale  blue.  This 
disk  is  after  a  cartoon  of  Niccolo  Pizzolo,  who,  with  Andrea  Mantegna, 
was  a  pupil  of  Francesco  Squarcione,  and  his  signature,  Nicoleti,  is  on  a 
tablet  upon  it. 

A  coarse  plate,  with  Adam  and  Eve,  is  dated  1563,  and  another  1564, 
the  styles  resembling  Faenza. 

Verona. — A  plate,  with  the  subject  Alexander  and  the  Family  of  Da- 
rius, has  a  curious  signature  inscription  which  has  been  a  puzzle.  It  is 
1563  adl  15  zenaro  \_Gio~]  gi<>r<in/  Batista  da  faenza  In  Verona  J/*. 
After  the  M  is  an  illegible  letter.  The  letters  which  are  in  brackets — 
Gio — are  by  some  read  Giu  for  Giuseppe,  and  Mr.  Chaffers  reads  them 
Feo  for  Franco,  and  believes  it  a  work  of  Battista  Franco. 

Este. — "Fine  faience"  of  pipe- clay  was  made  here,  very  beautiful, 
with  the  name  stamped  in  relief.  Specimens  have  decorations  in  rich 
corals. 

Milan. — The  faience  of  Milan,  as  known,  dates  from  the  last  century. 


17<'>  MODERN   POTTERY. 


Services  in  Chinese  decoration,  with  gold,  are  signed  with  a  mark  includ- 
ing the  letters  F.  ( '. ;  and  another  potter  or  artist,  Paaquale  Bvba&e,  signs 
his  name  to  similar  works,  with  reliefs  in  scrolls,  shells,  etc.  Pieces  with 
yellow  borders  and  Chinese  red  flowers  are  of  Milan.  Some  pieces  are 
copies  of  the  Oriental  porcelains. 


121.  Faenza  Dish.     (British  Museum.) 

Loot. — The  wares  of  this  factory,  estahlished  in  the  seventeenth,  and 
continued  in  the  eighteenth  century,  are  not  of  high  character.  The 
name  and  date,  1704,  are  on  a  dish  rudely  decorated  with  fish  and  fruit. 
The  monogram  AM,  which  occurs  also  on  this  dish,  is  found  on  others, 
with  blue,  yellow,  and  red  decorations.  The  pieces  have  the  three  sup- 
port marks,  unusual  on  Italian  wares. 

Ferrara  —  In  1436  there  was  a  Maestro  Benedetto  l>oc<daro  in  Cas- 
tello  at  Ferrara,  The  Duke  Alphonso  I.  was  a  patron  of  the  art,  and 
sought  to  establish  a  pottery  in  his  castle.  Wares  were  made  here  during 
the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries.     In  1404,  Isabella  D1  Este  sent  a 


ITALY.  177 

plate,  broken  in  three  pieces,  to  be  repaired  at  Ferrara,  and  it  was  done. 
Before  1567,  one  Camillo  was  summoned  here  from  Urbino,  and  seems  to 
have  re-established  the  discontinued  works.  Some  have  supposed  him  to 
be  Camillo  Fontana,  but  this  is  doubted.  He  executed  a  service  on  the 
occasion  of  the  marriage  of  Duke  Alphonso  II.,  bearing  the  emblems  of 
the  duke.  Ferrara  potteries  are  found  decorated  in  the  Urbino  style  with 
grotesques.  Of  the  efforts  to  discover  the  secret  of  porcelain  mention 
will  be  made  elsewhere. 

Sassttolo. — At  this  place,  near  Modena,  work  was  executed  from  1741 
by  Pietro  Lei  da  Modena  and  Ignacio  Cavazzuti. 

Turin. — The  Marquis  Campori  has  found  records  of  the  payments  of 
money,  in  1564,  to  Orazio  Fontana  by  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  in  one  of  which 
Orazio  is  styled  "  chief  potter  of  his  highness."  From  this  it  has  been 
supposed  that  the  great  ceramist  of  Urbino  had  worked  for  the  duke  in 
Savoy,  and  it  is  not  impossible  that  he  had  visited  Turin,  and  superin- 
tended the  foundation  of  majolica  works  there ;  although  M.  Jacquemart 
regards  the  title  as  only  honorary.  There  was  a  factory  established  about 
this  time.  The  earliest  dated  specimen  is  of  1577,  a  fruit-dish  with  open- 
work sides,  painted  with  a  boy  carrying  birds.  The  wares  which  were 
made  here  were  in  many  cases  decorated  in  blue,  somewhat  like  those  of 
Savona,  and  in  others  with  polychrome  pictures.  Francesco  Guagni  is 
named  as  a  painter. 

Maurienne. — M.  Jacquemart  describes  hunting  flasks  of  faience,  close- 
ly resembling  the  French  ware  of  Nevers,  as  of  Maurienne,  and  attributes 
also  a  mark  on  a  dish  with  blue  decoration,  Jean,  gony,  to  the  same  place. 

Castelli. — The  wares  of  the  Abruzzi,  north  of  Naples,  are  interesting, 
and  many  of  them  beautiful.  They  come  down  to  comparatively  modern 
times.  At  Castelli,  faience  has  been  made  from  the  sixteenth  to  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  but  none  is  known  of  the  sixteenth.  In  the  latter  part 
of  the  seventeenth  the  Castelli  fabric  survived  all  others  in  Italy  in  fine 
work ;  and  although  the  products  do  not  rank  in  rarity  with  the  relics  of 
the  older  art,  they  rival  them  in  beauty,  and  are  often  much  more  to  the 
taste  of  admirers  of  art  who  have  not  familiarized  themselves  with  the 
majolica  styles.  The  family  of  artists  named  Grue  were  the  most  emi- 
nent decorators  in  the  eighteenth  century.  Remarkable  decorations  were 
produced,  in  figure  and  landscape  painting,  occasionally  heightened  with 
gilding.  The  Grues  continued  the  work,  which  educated  the  Neapolitan 
modern  school  of  potters,  and  enabled  the  Capo-di-Monte  factory  at  Na- 
ples to  find  artists  who  could  produce  those  exquisite  paintings  on  porce- 
lain which  make  that  ware  more  valuable  than  its  relief  work.     The  gen- 

12 


L78  modern  pottery. 


era]  characteristics  of  Castelli  work  of  the  higher  class  bring  it  nearer  to 
painting  on  panel  or  canvas  than  the  ordinary  majolica  work.  Borders 
in  which  eupids  arc  repeated  are  frequent,  and  a  rich  yellow  ground  and 
covering  to  the  backs  of  plates  and  dishes.  It  is  not  easy  to  separate  the 
works  of  the  different  members  of  the  Grue  family.  A  drug  jar  of  17"7 
is  signed  Kal.Xris  Dott.  Grue  f  Neap.;  another  piece, Franc.  Ant. Xa- 
verius  Grue  Phil,  et  Theol.  Doctor  inventor  et  pinxit.  In  <>j>j>'nl  Buxi. 
Anno  I).  1713;  and  the  name  is  found  (F.  A.  Grue)  as  far  back  as  1<'»7T. 
There  were  several  others  of  the  name,  who  were  all  painters  of  pottery. 
Bernardino  Gentile  was  an  able  painter  on  Castelli  wares,  about  1700. 
The  products  were  in  all  varieties  of  ornamental  and  useful  pottery,  even 
to  small  cups  and  saucers  of  modern  shape. 

In  Southern  Italy  are  found  a  great  variety  of  pottery  images,  and 
figures,  mostly  of  a  religious  character,  made  sometimes 
for  arrangement  in  groups  forming  scenes  from  sacred 
history  —  the  Nativity,  the  miracles  of  the  Lord,  etc. 
Many  of  these  are  extraordinary  works  of  art,  the  faces 
being  remarkable  for  expression  and  character.  Some 
are  entirely  of  pottery  ;  others  have  only  the  heads, 
hands,  and  feet  of  pottery,  the  bodies  being  made  of 
other  substances.  Various  potteries  have  produced 
these.  Shall  we  attribute  some,  which  are  moulded 
with  the  best  skill  and  admirably  painted,  to  the  Cas- 
122. Vase: Grotesques,  telli  potters?  If  so,  it  is  only  because  of  their  high 
artistic  merit  and  the  improbability  that  artists  who 
were  able  to  produce  such  work  were  employed  at  any  of  the  unknown 
potteries.  As  specimens  of  character  sculpture,  they  frequently  rank 
above  the  best  porcelain  figurines  of  Dresden  or  Ilochst.  The  best  spec- 
imens appear  to  be  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Naples. — The  early  works  of  Naples  are  little  known.  M.  Jacque- 
mart  lias  found  the  name  on  works  of  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
vases  painted  on  one  side  only,  the  handles  caryatides.  On  one  he  reads 
Franco.  Brand.  Napoli.  . . .  Gem  novo. ;  and  on  another,  Paulus  Francus 
Brandi  Pinx.  68,  which  he  thinks  means  15(38.  Others  have  the  mark 
B.G.  with  a  crown,  and  yet  others  have  the  same  mark,  with  an  added  star 
or  a  palm  branch.  The  subjects  are  incorrectly  drawn  on  a  bluish  en- 
amel. Nothing  appears  to  have  been  produced  in  Naples  after  these 
vases,  if  they  are  indeed  Neapolitan,  until  the  eighteenth  century,  when 
two  fabrics  were  in  existence,  the  one  of  F.  Del  Vecchio,  the  other  of  the 
brothers  <  riustiniani. 


ITALY.  179 

The  Del  Vecchio  faience  is  of  a  variety  of  forms,  and  well  decorated, 
especially  in  table  services.  Figures  and  figurines  in  white  enamelled 
ware  are  admirably  moulded,  and  busts  in  classic  style  on  pedestals. 
Well-painted  tiles  for  wall  use  were  made,  and  services  in  cream  ware. 

The  Giustiniani  fabrics  are  of  remarkably  fine  character,  some  of  them 
unsurpassed  by  any  European  work  of  their  period.  Black  decorations 
introduced  on  white  enamels,  in  arabesque  patterns  and  in  ancient  styles, 
are  remarkably  effective.  Reproductions  of  the  ancient  decorations, 
black  on  red,  are  less  skilful,  the  glaze  over  the  red  pottery  but  poorly 
imitating  the  thin  lustre  or  varnish  of  the  Greeks.  A  very  beautiful 
white  bowl  on  a  dish  in  our  collection  is  decorated  with  birds  in  brilliant 
colors,  contrasting  with  a  deep-brown  border  in  arabesques.  The  dish  has 
in  the  centre  an  Italian  peasant  woman,  admirably  painted  in  colors. 

After  the  improvements  in  cream  ware  made  by  Wedgwood  in  Eng- 
land, large  quantities  were  exported  to  Italy,  and  this  seems  to  have  led 
the  Neapolitan  works  to  attempt  to  produce  these  favorite  wTares,  which 
they  did  with  great  success.  The  Del  Vecchio  and  Ginstiniani  white 
potteries,  in  form,  glaze,  and  decoration,  were  superior  to  any  other  conti- 
nental wares  of  this  kind,  and,  from  their  abundance,  seem  to  have  had  a 
large  sale.  Cream-color  wares  from  both  factories  are  finely  decorated  in 
colors  and  gilding. 

The  royal  factory  of  Capo-di-Monte,  in  Naples,  is  said  to  have  sprung 
from  a  pottery,  and  faience  is  attributed  to  it. 

Genoa. — Whether  the  wares  of  Genoa  are  to  be  distinguished  from 
those  of  Savona  by  the  mark,  a  light-house  hanging  out  a  signal,  is  a  sub- 
ject of  doubt.  Both  wares  are  alike,  if  these  were  two  fabrics.  But  cer- 
tain styles  of  figure -painting  in  blue  camai'eu,  where  the  work  is  done 
in  a  free  sketchy  rather  than  finished  manner,  are  characteristic  of  one 
artist  or  one  factory.  The  products  are  decorated  in 
blue,  as  are  those  of  Savona. 

Savona. — This  place,  or  its  environs,  has  been  the 
locality  of  an  extensive  manufacture  of  pottery  from  a 
remote  time.  In  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  cen- 
turies great  quantities  of  ware  were  made  decorated  in 
blue,  usually  pale  and  cold,  and  although  much  of  it  is 
ordinary,  occasional  pieces  are  of  artistic  merit.     Large 

vases,  pharmacy  iars,  dishes,  and  services  were  made.       "' '      c  ,J   T  / 
>  *■  J    J       '  tesques.     (Home.) 

River -gods   are   common   decorations.      The   mark  is 

usually  the  shield  of  arms  of  the  town,  accompanied  sometimes  by  letters 

which  may  be  artists'  initials.     A  dish  in  our  collection  with  sea-gods  and 


ISO  MODERN  POTTERY. 


dolphins,  is  signed  P>.  A.  ;  others  have  B.  C.  and  various  initials.  G.  S.  is 
supposed  to  be  the  signature  of  Girolamo  Salomone,  who  also  used  the  two 
triangles  crossed  which  form  what  is  called  Solomon's  Knot.  Jaques  Bo- 
relly,  or  Boselli,  signs  work  at  Savona  in  the  latter  part  of  the  last  century. 

III.-SPAIN. 

Under  Hispano-Moresque  pottery,  the  entrance  of  enamelled  wares 
into  the  manufactures  of  Spain  has  been  described,  and  the  history  of 
that  fabric  traced  as  it  passed  into  its  decadence.  Spain,  after  the  Moorish 
works  had  become  matters  of  history,  produced  other  faience  decorated 
in  styles  more  like  the  French  or  other  European  makers,  and  also  pre- 
served in  various  localities  much  of  the  Saracen  influence  which  is  visible 
to  the  present  day  on  Spanish  wares. 

Talavera  was  a  seat  of  potteries  in  1760  which,  Baretti  says,  gave 
employment  to  hundreds  of  people.  The  manufacture  continued  to  the 
end  of  the  century ;  but  little  is  known  of  its  characteristics.  Some  is 
described  as  having  a  light-green  tinge  in  the  glaze,  with  designs  in  bold 
outline  slightly  colored,  somewhat  resembling  the  wares  of  Genoa  and 
Savona,  but  less  artistic.     Others  were  like  Delft. 

Brongniart  regarded  Talavera  as  the  true  centre  of  Spanish  pottery, 
and  it  is  said  that  the  word  talavera  is  in  Spain  synonymous  with  earth- 
enware, as  delft  was  used  in  England  with  the  same  meaning,  and  china 
with  us  for  porcelain.  M.  Jacquemart  describes  the  wares  as  having  a 
good  white  enamel,  and  the  decorations  and  forms  as  of  great  variety  and 
excellence.  He  says  well-painted  ornaments,  and  also  reliefs,  give  beauty 
to  the  fabrics ;  and  masks,  scrolls,  delicate  flowers,  landscape  and  figure 
paintings,  are  found. 

Alcoea. — Laborde  ("Voyage  en  Espagne")  describes  an  important 
pottery  here.  A  cup  belonging  to  Baron  Davillier,  with  a  decoration 
representing  The  Family  of  Darius,  is  signed  Alcoea  Espana.  Soliva. 
M.  Jacquemart  states  that  this  artist  worked  in  France  and  Spain,  and 
doubtless  some  of  his  works  classed  as  French  should  be  restored  to  Al- 
cora.  A  vase  with  handles,  white  enamel,  decorated  with  birds  and 
flowers  coarsely  painted,  is  supposed  to  be  of  Alcora.  Other  pieces  with 
marks  given  in  the  Table  are  so  assigned. 

Alcoy. — Laborde  also  speaks  of  potteries  here,  but  nothing  is  known 
of  their  products. 

Manises. — We  have  spoken  of  this  locality  in  treating  of  Hispano- 
Moresque   wares.      Its   works   retained   Saracenic    character    for   a   long 


SPAIN.— PORTUGAL.  181 


period,  and  the  lustre  wares  were  last  made  here  by  the  innkeeper  else- 
where mentioned.  The  gilded  wares  of  Manises  were  much  esteemed,  so 
that  it  was  said  popes  and  cardinals  ordered  them,  and  the  gilding  was 
highly  extolled.  These  were  lustred  wares,  the  remains  of  the  Moorish 
style. 

Seville. — M.  Jacquemart  assigns  to  this  place  certain  wares  in  the 
style  of  Savona,  but  with  brown  and  orange -yellow  the  predominant 
colors,  figures,  wreaths  of  flowers,  and  ruins  painted  in  fair  style,  marked 
S  with  a  star ;  also  a  helmet-shaped  piece  in  Moustiers  style  in  blue,  with 
the  same  mark  over  an  L.  Specimens  of  later  work  were  exhibited  in 
Paris  in  1865,  painted  with  dances,  bulls,  the  arms  of  the  Cathedral  of 
Seville,  and  other  subjects. 

Valencia. — Besides  the  Hispano-Moresque  wares,  this  place  has  pro- 
duced faience  in  other  styles,  especially  tiles,  decorated  in  a  variety  of 
fashions.  The  Saracen  use  of  tiles  for  wall  decorations  has  continued  in 
Spain,  and  paintings  on  single  tiles,  or  on  large  surfaces  of  numerous  tiles, 
are  common  in  Spanish  buildings. 

IV.-PORTUGAL. 

All  that  we  know  of  the  Portuguese  works  in  pottery  can  be  said  in 
few  words.  Lisbon  has  produced  faience,  vases,  and  table  services  of 
white  decorated  with  arabesques  and  flowers  in  colors.  The  royal  man- 
ufactory at  Rato  has  made  a  great  variety  of  wares,  in  highly  decora- 
tive styles  —  dishes  with  figures,  animals,  and  vegetables  in  relief;  vases 
in  quaint  and  odd  as  well  as  in  ordinary  forms ;  wares  in  Rouen  and 
other  known  styles ;  decorations  in  flower,  landscape,  arabesque,  and  fig- 
ure paintings.  Marks  given  in  the  Table  are  composed  of  the  letters 
FR,TB,  and  A  S.  Caldas  produced  black  wares  with  relief  deco- 
rations, and  others  in  violet,  yellow,  and  green.  Bulls  are  among  the  fig- 
ure pieces. 

Coimbra  makes  black  wares;  Porto,  wares  of  all  kinds.  The  history 
of  the  art  in  Portugal  is  unknown. 


182  MODERN  POTTERY. 


V-FRANCE. 

"While  Italy  and  Germany  were  making  rapid  advance  in  the  use  of 
pottery  for  artistic  purposes,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  France  remained 
•  ■(intent  with  the  rude  wares  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Doubtless  some  varia- 
tion, if  not  progress,  was  made  in  these,  but  the  art  has  no  history  in 
France  until  after  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  when  Italian 
potters  began  to  arrive.  None  of  the  French  wares  previous  to  this  time, 
few  indeed  in  the  sixteenth  century,  are  recognized  as  the  work  of  any  lo- 
cality. In  1520  two  potters,  Boneau  and  Papon,  worked  at  Sadirac,  near 
Bordeaux,  and  made  "potherie  de  verderie  bonne  et  marchande"  such 
as  chaufettes,  plates,  ecuelles,  and  other  works ;  but  the  ware  is  unknown. 
Before  1502  Jerome  Solobrin  came  from  Italy,  perhaps  from  Forli,  where 
the  name  is  known  as  of  a  potter,  and  established  himself  at  Amboise.  In 
the  time  of  Henry  III.,  Jehan  Francisque,  from  Pesaro ;  Julian  Gambin, 
of  Faenza ;  and  Sebastian  Gritfo  from  Genoa,  were  moulders  of  majolica 
at  Lyons.  In  1588,  Jehan  Ferro,  from  Montferrat,  made  white  wares  at 
Nantes.  Jacques  and  Loys  Ridolfo,  of  Caffagiuolo,  established  a  pottery 
at  Machecoul.  But  although  these  Italians  brought  Italian  styles  with 
them,  and  made  similar  wares  to  those  they  had  known  at  home,  they 
were  not  popular,  or,  at  best,  were  popular  for  a  brief  period,  and  made 
little  impression  on  the  art  in  France. 

The  French,  after  the  art  had  become  naturalized,  adopted  many  orig- 
inal styles,  made  copies  indeed,  but  retained  their  own  styles,  and,  in  fact, 
founded  a  ceramic  art  in  many  respects  new,  fresh,  natural,  and  national, 
as  if  no  previous  works  in  painted  pottery  had  been  known.  The  major 
portion  of  the  products  of  the  large  factories  at  Rouen,  Moustiers,  and 
elsewhere,  although  including  much  that  was  Persian  and  Chinese  in 
style,  were  eminently  French  in  decoration. 

Before  commencing  an  examination  of  the  continuous  art  of  France, 
however,  it  is  necessary  to  describe  an  exceptional  class  of  pottery,  which 
appeared  and  disappeared,  leaving  no  trace  of  influence,  standing  in  the 
history  of  ceramic  art  in  singular  lonesomeness,  without  predecessor,  com ■ 
panion,  or  follower,  but  wTell  fitted  and  abundantly  able,  from  its  own 
beauty,  to  stand  alone  among  the  splendid  products  of  all  time. 

Only  a  few  years  ago,  attention  was  first  directed  to  specimens  of  pot- 
tery, which,  although  well  known,  had  not  attracted  the  curiosity  of  col- 
lectors.      Isolated  pieces   here   and  there   in  collections  were  variously 


FRANCE. 


1S3 


classed  as  work  of  Florence,  brought  into  France  by  Catharine  de'  Medici, 
as  work  of  Girolamo  Delia  Robbia,  who  came  from  Italy  to  France,  and 
as  work  of  a  pupil  of  Benvenuto  Cellini.  It  was  ob- 
served that  interlaced  crescents  were  found  among 
the  ornaments,  that  the  letter  H  was  common,  and 
appeared  also  combined  with  what  was  by  some 
supposed  to  be  a  doubled  C,  and  by  others  a  doubled 
D.  Thus  arose  the  idea  that  the  wares  were  of  the 
time  of  Henri  II.,  and  that  the  monogram  referred 
to  Diane  de  Poictiers,  and  the  name  attached  to 
it,  by  which  it  is  widely  known — Faience  de  Henri 
Deu,r,  or  Faience  de  Diane  de  Poictiers. 

The  interest  of  amateurs  in  this  remarkable  pot- 
tery became  the  greater  when  pieces  were  brought 
together,  and  it  was  discovered  that  they  possessed 
three  qualifications  always  certain  to  create  interest : 
they  were  old,  they  were  beautiful,  and  they  were 
rare.  The  prices  of  the  few  specimens  coming  into 
sales  were  greatly  increased,  until  at  the  present 
time  this  ware  is  estimated  at  enormous  rates. 
Fifty -three  specimens  in  all  are  now  known,  of 
which  twenty-six  are  in  France,  twenty-six  in  Eng- 
land, and  one  in  Russia.  These  are  severally  estimated  at  values  varying 
from  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  fifteen  hundred  pounds. 

M.  Benjamin  Fillon,  in  1862,  impressed  from  various  circumstances 
that  Thouars  was  the  place  for  investigation  into  the  history  of  this  ware, 
especially  because  many  specimens  had  been  found  near  that  centre,  vis- 
ited the  place,  and  very  soon  determined  the  history,  which,  when  pub- 
lished by  him,  was  received  with  various  sentiments  as  his  facts  sustained 
or  overthrew  favorite  theories. 

The  story  of  the  faience  d'Oiron  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  of 
the  episodes  of  art  history.  Ilelene  de  Hangest-Genlis  was  widow  of 
Artur  Goufh'er,  formerly  tutor  (gov/oerneur)  of  Francis  I.  (who  died  at 
fifty-three  years  of  age,  in  154-7),  and  also  Grand  Master  of  France.  We 
are  told  that  this  lady  was  accomplished,  that  there  is  preserved  from  her 
hand  a  collection  of  crayon  drawings  of  her  contemporaries  for  each  of 
which  Francis  himself  was  pleased  to  compose  a  verse,  and  wrote  some  of 
them  with  his  own  hand.  The  old  Chateau  of  Oiron,  near  Thouars,  was 
her  residence  in  the  country — the  ancient  seat  of  the  Lords  of  Gouffier — 
on  a  great  plain,  where  the  wild  geese  in  winter  were  seen  circling,  as 


124.  Faience  of  Oiron.  Height 
*7  inches.     (Preaux  Coll.) 


1S4 


MODERN  POTTERY. 


they  do  before  alighting;  whence  came  the  name  Oi-rond.  At  the  cha- 
teau, in  the  summers  after  1524,  this  lady  seems  to  have  occupied  herself 
with  books  and  art.  With  books,  for  it  appears  that  she  had  a  librarian 
and  secretary, one  Jehan  Bernart;  and  with  art,  for  she  employed  a  potter, 
one  Francois  Charpentier.  These  two,  Bernart  and  Charpentier,  seem  to 
have  been  the  joint  managers  of  the  little  pottery,  which  was  worked  ex- 
clusively  for  the  pleasure  and  at  the  expense  of  the  lady.  In  1529  she 
conveyed  to  them  a  house  and  orchard  where  were  the  furnace  and  work- 
shops, as  a  reward  for  their  services  ;  but  it 
does  not  appear  that  they  ceased  in  any  way 
to  work  for  her,  or  made  any  pottery  for 
sale.  In  1537  she  died,  leaving  her  son, 
Claude  Gouffier,  heir  of  the  estate,  and  he 
carried  on  the  work,  probably,  until  1568. 
After  this  there  may  have  been  some  one 
at  Oiron  or  Thouars  who  thought  it  well  to 
make  pottery,  and  who  produced  coarse  ar- 
ticles, not  like  the  Gouffier  products,  which 
had  ceased  to  appear  with  the  lives  of  the 
mother  and  son.  The  entire  fabric  was  the 
enjo}Tment  of  a  lady  of  wealth,  refinement, 
and  cultivation,  succeeded  by  a  son  whose 
tastes  were  perhaps  not  so  pure  and  good, 
but  who  nevertheless  must  have  been  a  lover 
i  of  art  for  the  sake  of  the  art.  Their  prod- 
it  nets  were  probably  few,  made  at  irregular 
intervals,  as  a  lady  amateur  might  paint  or 
Height  7  otherwise  amuse  herself  with  art,  and  the 
beautiful  creations  of  the  little  pottery  were 
distributed  as  presents  among  friends  who  cared  for  such  things. 

The  arms  of  various  houses,  probably  friends  of  the  Gouffier  family, 
to  whom  the  pieces  were  presented,  are  found  on  specimens,  as  well  as  the 
arms  of  the  king  and  of  the  dauphin.  Gilles  de  Laval,  whose  arms  are  on 
one  piece,  is  said  to  have  been  a  friend  and  companion  of  Artur  Gouffier. 
The  letter  II  occurring  so  frequently  is  the  initial  of  Ilangest.  The  mon- 
ogram of  II  combined  with  the  double  C  is  supposed  to  be  the  union  of 
the  two  names  of  mother  and  son,  Ilelene  and  Claude. 

The  Oiron  wares  are  made  of  fine  pipe-clay.  They  belong  to  the  class 
known  in  France  as  Faunce fine.  They  were  not  made  on  the  model  of 
any  pre-existing  ware,     in  forms,  the  Lady  Ilelene  seems  to  have  taken 


126.    Faience    <>t'  Oiron. 

inches.     (Preaux  Coll.) 


FRANCE. 


185 


her  ideas  occasionally  from  silver  and  other  metal  vases,  but  not  servilely 
copying.  There  was  a  change  after  her  death,  when  her  son  made  articles 
of  more  complicated  forms,  less  beautiful  because  less  simple,  but  wonder- 
fully fine  in  their  elaboration.  The  decorations  were  in  as  novel  style  as 
the  pottery ;  for  instead  of  paint,  they  were  inlaid  work.  The  lines  of 
the  designs  were  engraved  out  of  the  soft  paste,  and  filled  in  with  colored 
clay,  evenly  tooled,  and  polished  down  to  a  perfect  surface.  These  de- 
signs were  beautiful  interlacings  of  ribbons  or  narrow  bands,  arabesques, 
letters,  crescents,  diamond  squares,  and  other  simple  but  rich  forms. 
Later,  reliefs  were  added — masks,  shields,  lizards,  frogs,  shells — which  may 
possibly  have  been  suggested  by,  or  may  have  suggested,  the  work  of  Pal- 
issy,  which,  as  we  shall  see,  was  contemporary.  It  has  been  noticed  that 
the  patterns  of  interlacing  lines  resemble  the  beautiful  work  on  the  bind- 
ings of  books  of  the  period,  especially  those  of  Grolier  and  Maioli,  so 
prized  by  collectors.  But  it  is  more  likely  that  the  lady,  who  possessed  a 
library,  found  her  inspiration  where  the  engrav- 
ers of  dies  for  bookbinders  found  it — in  the  ex- 
quisite ornamental  work,  initial  letters,  head  and 
tail  pieces,  and  border  enclosures  with  which  the 
wood-engravers  of  the  period,  and  that  just  pre- 
ceding it,  had  ornamented  the  books  of  Germany, 
Switzerland,  and  France.  This  mine  of  patterns 
had  enriched  Italian  pottery,  as  we  have  seen. 
The  ornaments  on  the  bindings  of  books  in  the 
sixteenth  century  were,  in  many  cases,  from  dies 
which  seem  to  have  been  engraved  by  well- 
known  artists,  who,  on  the  hog-skin  bindings  es- 
pecially, reproduced  in  embossed  work  designs 
with  which  we  are  familiar  in  their  engravings. 

The  interlaced  styles  of  ornamentation  found 
on  Grolier  and  other  bindings  had  previously 
been  common  in  wTood-cuts,  and  exquisite  work 
of  this  kind  was  especially  characteristic  of  books 
published  in  France  just  at  the  period  of  the  Oi- 
ron  faience.     If  the  library  of  the  Lady  of  Ilan- 

gest  did  not  contain  the  wrorks  of  the  German, 

°     .  '126.  Faience  of  Oiron.     Height 

Swiss,  and  Italian  publishers  of  the  previous  half-     u±  inches.    (Magniac  Coll.) 
century,  it  was  undoubtedly  rich  in  the  luxuri- 
ously ornamented  books  of  the  Lyons  and  Paris  presses,  and  probably  re- 
ceived constant  additions  of  newly  issued  volumes  which  then  appeared 


ISO  MODERN  POTTERY. 


in  great  number  from  year  to  year.  One  of  the  pieces  of  faience  has 
on  it  the  pelican  mark  of  Jean  de  Marnef,  a  bookseller;  and  another,  M. 
Jaequemart  tells  us,  has  the  head  of  an  old  woman  copied  from  a  cut  in 
a  book.  We  regret  that  he  does  not  name  the  book.  When  she  opened 
her  Book  of  Hours  in  the  morning,  every  page  was  full  of  the  same 
spirit  of  ornamentation  which  characterizes  her  work.  Such  a  volume  as 
the  Orosius  of  Verard  was  full  of  suggestion.  Giorgio  Andreoli  may 
have  found  in  the  grand  initial  S  in  that  book  the  originals  of  some  of  his 
lustred  decorations  a  ca/ndeliere.  An  ordinary  volume  like  the  kk  Cicero'1 
of  Petit  &  Badius,  printed  in  1531,  and  coming  fresh  to  her  in  the  coun- 
try, would  have  furnished  ample  motive  to  the  pencil  of  Helene  of  11, in- 
gest. So,  too,  on  the  armor  of  her  husband  or  her  relatives  she  may  have 
seen  abundant  illustration  of  arabesque  engraving  and  inlaying  with  gold, 
and  thus  taken  ideas  of  the  Persians,  traces  of  which  are  visible  in  the 
faience. 

An  eminent  authority,  with  the  keen  eye  of  a  French  lover  of  art, 
finds  in  her  work  "  une  note  triste,  qui  lui  est  dictee  par  son  veuvage." 
So  much  mystery  has  enveloped  her  and  her  artistic  employments,  that  her 
art  life  must  be  created  by  some  imagination,  guided  by  the  few  materials 
left.  But  what  more  is  needed  ?  She  was  an  accomplished  woman,  who 
used  the  pencil  and  possessed  a  library  in  an  age  of  noble  books  for 
wealthy  purchasers.  To  any  one  familiar  with  these  it  is  not  difficult  to 
imagine  the  lady's  enjoyment  as  she  followed  the  prevailing  taste  of  the 
time,  and  sketched  this  and  that  interlacing  of  lines,  this  and  that  graceful 
idea  of  a  foliated  curve ;  this  combination  of  mosaic  pattern,  or  that  free 
and  easy  use  of  lines  in  which  Diirer  had  sometimes  indulged  his  fancy. 
One  is  not  forbidden  to  imagine  her  looking  at  the  armor  of  brave  men 
of  her  family.  And  when  she  fell  on  a  pattern  which  she  liked,  she  laid 
it  aside  for  use,  or  perhaps  took  the  ivory  -  surfaced  vase  or  cup  in  her 
hands  (they  were  nearly  all  small  pieces)  and  traced  the  pattern  on  it,  and 
then,  with  delicate  tools,  engraved  and  filled  it  in  with  color.  There 
could  not  be  a  pleasanter  bit  of  fancy  work  for  a  lady,  nor  one  whose 
exquisite  results  would  afford  more  satisfaction  ;  and  the  more  that,  un- 
like embroidery  or  other  needle-work,  the  result  was  lasting. 

The  prevailing  color  used  in  the  decoration  was  a  dark  yellow,  which, 
with  the  cream  white  of  the  clay,  gives  the  tone  to  the  pieces,  sometimes 
darkened  by  the  use  of  brown,  and  varied  with  black,  blue,  pink,  green, 
and  violet,  Some  of  the  ornamentation  is  black  on  white,  or  white  on 
black.  A  thin  glaze  covered  all,  not  so  glaring  as  to  hurt  the  soft  tone. 
It  is  supposed  that  the  simpler  forms  are  those  which  were  made  under 


FRANCE.  187 

the  direction  of  the  lady.  They  are  the  more  beautiful,  but  in  that  re- 
spect tastes  may  reasonably  differ.  No  two  pieces  are  known  which  are 
precisely  alike. 

The  pavement  of  the  Chateau  of  Oiron  is  described  by  M.  Fillon.  It 
is  of  square  tiles,  each  of  which  bears  a  letter,  monogram,  or  shield.  The 
letters  are  colored  in  violet,  and  form  the  legend  Hie  terminus  hceret. 
These  tiles  seem  to  be  of  the  same  fabric  with  the  finer  wares. 

Will  any  more  specimens  of  the  faience  of  Oiron  be  found  ?  This  is 
the  question  occurring  to  many  collectors  and  lovers  of  art.  The  story 
was  current  a  year  ago  of  a  Paris  dealer  who  found  a  piece  in  an  out-of- 
the-way  inn  near  Thouars,  bought  it  for  a  song,  and  went  in  hot  haste  to 
Paris,  where  he,  on  the  same  evening,  oifered  it  to  a  distinguished  col- 
lector for  twenty-five  thousand  francs.  The  collector  proposed  to  keep 
it  for  examination,  and  if  genuine  to  accept  it.  The  dealer  refused,  say- 
ing, "  No ;  if  you  decline  it  as  not  surely  genuine,  its  reputation  will  be 
destroyed.  Take  it  now  or  never."  The  collector  decided  to  decline  the 
risk,  and  it  was  sold  before  midnight  to  another  collector  for  the  sum  de- 
manded, and  adds  one  to  the  number  of  known  pieces.  So  runs  the  story. 
"  Si  -non  e  vero,"  etc.  It  is  true  that  an  additional  specimen  has  been 
recently  found.  We  see  no  reason  why  many  more  should  not  turn  up. 
There  is  no  greater  error  than  that  which  is  so  frequently  made  of  sup- 
posing that  Europe  has  been  thoroughly  searched  for  valuable  works  of 
old  art,  and  that  all  are  now  known  and  catalogued. 

This  ware  has  been  described  before  entering  on  the  general  history 
of  ceramic  art  in  France  because  of  its  exceptional  character.  It  stands 
alone.  It  was  never  copied  until  in  our  own  time,  at  great  labor  and  ex- 
pense, by  skilful  English  potters.  Its  ornamentation,  beautiful  beyond 
praise,  was  unknown  to  the  potter  artists  of  France,  and  gave  no  hints  to 
any  of  them.  The  pieces  reposed  in  private  houses,  unseen,  regarded  as 
old  crockery  of  small  account,  perhaps  now  and  then  attracting  the  eye  of 
a  lover  of  art,  who  would  look  and  wonder  what  this  was.  One  and  an- 
other beautiful  thought  of  the  Lady  of  Ilangest  vanished  from  among  the 
possessions  of  the  world  when  a  vase  or  a  cup  was  shattered  by  a  careless 
servant,  unregretted,  until  in  these  later  times  men  have  come  to  think 
that  there  are  no  greater  treasures  of  the  history  of  the  human  race  than 
the  beautiful  creations  of  mind,  moulded  in  clay,  of  which  our  bodies  were 
made,  and  burned  in  tire  to  make  them  outlast  the  successive  generations 
of  dying  men. 

We  turn  from  the  old  Chateau  of  Oiron,  and  its  lady,  to  a  very  differ- 
ent person,  and  another  art  story. 


1S8  MODERN  POTTERY. 


The  life  of  Bernard  Palisst  has  been  so  frequently  written  that  it  is 
known  to  readers  of  all  classes  of  literature.  Very  much  that  has  been 
written  about  him  is  imagination,  unfounded  on  fact.  This  account  has 
no  concern  with  any  portion  of  his  history  except  that  which  relates  to  his 
artistic  life.  He  was  in  this  a  type  of  the  French  ceramic  art,  original 
from  the  beginning,  achieving  the  most  brilliant  results  in  a  constant  suc- 
cession of  original  ideas.  Born  of  poor  parents  in  1506-'10,  or  there- 
abouts, at  La  Chapelle  Biron,  in  Perigord,  as  some  say,  near  Saintes  as 
others  think,  he  learned  to  read,  and  grew  up  an  artisan  in  glass,  making, 
cutting,  and  staining  it.  He  was  a  hard  student  while  he  worked,  and 
thus  became  somewhat  familiar  with  geometry  as  well  as  with  more  or 
less  historical  literature,  especially  such  as  was  of  value  in  his  work  as  a 
glass-stainer  and  maker  of  windows  for  churches.  While  a  young  man, 
he  travelled  in  the  South  and  East  of  France,  the  Low  Countries,  Flan- 
ders, and  parts  of  Germany,  acquiring  at  the  same  time  knowledge  in 
natural  history,  geology,  and  chemistry,  and  opening  his  mind  to  broader 
views  of  science.  He  returned  to  France  in  1539,  established  himself  at 
Saintes,  married,  and  settled,  clown  to  work  as  a  glass-painter  and  land-sur- 
veyor. And  here  one  day  his  destiny  overtook  him,  handed  to  him  in  a 
faience  cup.  "  Twenty-five  years  ago,"  he  says,  "  there  was  shown  to  me 
a  cup  of  earth,  rounded  and  enamelled,  of  such  beauty  that  thenceforth  I 
entered  into  discussion  with  my  own  thoughts,  recalling  many  proposi- 
tions that  some  had  made  me,  joking  me  when  I  was  painting  images. 
And,  seeing  that  people  began  to  abandon  them  in  the  country  where  I 
was  living,  and  also  that  the  glass  work  was  not  in  much  request,  I  came 
to  thinking  that  if  I  had  discovered  how  to  make  enamels  I  could  make 
earthen  vessels  and  other  ware  of  beautiful  sort,  for  God  had  given  me  to 
understand  something  of  portraiture.  And  from  that  time,  without  re- 
gard to  the  fact  that  I  had  no  knowledge  of  argillaceous  earths,  I  devoted 
myself  to  searching  for  the  process  of  enamelling,  like  one  who  gropes  in 
darkness." 

Brongniart  thinks  the  cup  that  brought  his  destiny  to  Palissy  was  of 
Nuremberg  ware,  and  M.  Fillon  thought  it  was  Oiron  ware,  but  afterward 
revised  his  opinion,  and  conceives  it  to  have  been  a  white  enamelled  cup 
from  Ferrara.  M.  Delange,  in  his  magnificent  work  on  the  wares  of 
Palissy,  insists  that  it  was  a  cup  of  the  Oiron  faience  which  so  aroused 
his  imagination;  but  this  was  not  enamelled,  and  was  no  more  likely  to 
suggest  the  thought  of  enamel  as  a  desirable  discovery  than  any  of  the 
common  green  glazed  wares  of  the  potters,  and  he,  a  glass-maker,  would 
hardly  have  described  an  Oiron  cup  as  "enamelled."  There  is  little  on 
which  to  found  any  opinion. 


FBANCE.  189 

Antoine  de  Pons  went  to  Ferrara  in  1533,  and  married  there,  return- 
ing to  Saintes  in  1539,  where  he  became  the  protector  of  Palissy.  It  is 
suggested  that  among  his  bride's  presents  might  have  been  some  Italian 
majolica,  then  prized  if  beautiful.  M.  Jacquemart  hints  that  it  may  have 
been  a  cup  from  a  Spanish  vessel  loaded  with  pottery,  Valencia  ware 
and  cups  of  Venice,  brought  into  La  Ilochelle  in  1543,  when  Francis  I. 
was  there,  from  which  the  king  gave  some  to  many  ladies.  It  is  not 
probable  that  Palissy  knew  where  the  cup  came  from.  It  may  even  have 
been  Chinese,  rare  but  not  unknown  in  those  days.  It  was  the  enamel 
which  interested  him,  and  it  does  not  appear  to  have  occurred  to  him  that 
it  was  possible  to  go  to  the  place  of  manufacture  and  ascertain  how  it  was 
done.  Had  he  never  heard,  he  who  had  travelled  far,  and  was  wise  for 
his  day,  of  the  Saracen  works,  which  were  abundant  in  the  Mediterranean 
ports,  or  of  the  splendors  of  Italian  ware,  made  in  a  score  of  well-known 
factories  ?  There  is  something  marvellous  in  the  fact  that  such  a  man, 
with  experience  and  education,  having  seen  a  beautiful  object  and  desir- 
ing to  learn  the  art  of  making  the  like,  should  devote  years  of  life  and  la- 
bor to  a  blind  "  groping  in  the  dark,"  sacrifice  his  little  property,  sacrifice 
his  family  and  their  happiness,  when  he  could  have  learned  all  he  desired 
by  extending  his  travels  and  asking  the  men  who  could  tell  him.  Possi- 
bly he  had  heard  of  Girolamo  Delia  Robbia,  who  had  come  to  Paris  in 
1528  with  the  Delia  Pobbia  "  secrets,"  as  they  were  called,  and  had  thus 
received  the  idea  that  the  art  was  a  mystery  known  to  few  and  kept  pro- 
foundly dark  by  those  few. 

Whatever  be  the  reason,  the  man  was  seized  with  that  mania,  as  it  has 
often  been  called  in  precisely  similar  cases,  of  inventing  something.  It 
was  not  a  painted  and  glazed  pottery  which  he  sought  to  make.  His 
knowledge  of  glass,  and  the  existence  of  glazed  wares  in  France,  indicate 
that  this  would  have  been  a  very  easy  matter  for  him.  He  says  that  he 
sought  the  art  of  making  enamels.  It  is  possible,  and  probable,  espe- 
cially if  the  cup  which  he  had  seen  was  true  porcelain  of  China  or  Persia, 
that  he  supposed,  as  did  all  learned  men  of  that  day.  that  the  material  was 
a  composition  of  some  sort  wholly  distinct  from  "  argillaceous  earths," 
and  this  composition  his  experienced  eye  recognized  as  different  from 
glass  and  from  glazed  pottery.  Did  he  at  that  time  know  even  the  word 
"  email  ?"  Or  are  we  to  read  what  he  wrote  twenty-five  years  later  as  if 
he  had  said,  "  I  thought  if  I  had  discovered  what  I  now  know  to  be  en- 
amels, I  could,"  etc.  ?  His  proposal  to  his  own  thought  was  something 
wherewith  to  make  "  des  vaisseaux  de  terre  et  autre  chose  de  belle  ordon- 
nance,  parceque  Dieu  m'avoit  donne  d'entendre  quelque  chose  de  la  por- 


190  MODERN  POTTERY. 


traiture."  Of  course  it  was  a  verifiable  substance  which  lie  thought  to 
discover,  wherewith  he  could  not  only  beautify  pottery,  but  make  other 
things.  The  art  of  painting  with  enamel  colors  on  metal  was  at  this  very 
time  in  perfection  in  France.  Kardon  Penicaud,  a  glass-painter  like  Pal- 
issy, had  fifty  years  previously  done  such  work  at  Limoges,  and  Leonard 
Limosin,  the  contemporary  of  Palissy,  was  producing  his  superb  pieces 
from  1532  onward.  It  is  interesting,  however  unprofitable,  to  study,  or  to 
guess  at  the  motives  operating  on  the  mind  of  such  a  man  as  Palissy.  lie 
stands  among  artists  in  a  singularly  solitary  position,  enveloped  in  much 
obscurity,  seeking  with  blind  groping  an  art  secret,  founding  and  build- 
ing up  a  department  of  art  destined  to  immortalize  his  name,  disdaining 
through  pride,  or  neglecting  through  ignorance,  to  ask  help  from  any 
man,  and  in  the  time  of  success  preferring  to  produce  a  style  of  work 
wholly  original,  new,  and  unlike  what  the  world  had  ever  seen. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  discuss  the  questions  relating  to  the  religions 
life  of  Palissy,  which  have  afforded  material  for  many  books,  containing 
some  truth  and  some  fiction.  Adopting  Calvinism  when  a  young  man, 
in  the  troublous  times  which  ensued  he  was  taken  under  the  protection 
of  the  Constable  Anne  de  Montmorency,  who,  when  his  own  influence 
was  not  strong  enough  to  save  him,  obtained  for  him  from  Catharine  de 
Medici,  queen  of  Henry  II.,  the  honorary  appointment  of  Inventeur  des 
rustiques  figulvnes  da  rot/.  This,  while  he  was  still  at  Saintes,  lifted  him 
out  of  the  jurisdiction  of  local  magistrates  by  attaching  him  to  the  court. 

It  does  not  appear  with  certainty  at  what  time  he  began  his  experi- 
ments. As  we  have  seen  in  his  own  account,  he  says  "  twenty-five  years 
ago,"  and  this  account  seems  to  have  been  written  about  1575-80.  But 
there  is  some  confusion  of  dates.  Perhaps  the  phrase  "  twenty -five  years 
ago  "  may  have  been  used  without  accuracy,  as  a  general  expression,  or  he 
may  have  written  this  portion  of  his  memoir  at  an  earlier  date  than  other 
portions,  which  refer  to  events  in  1575.  For  it  appears  that  in  1543  he 
was  employed  as  a  surveyor  by  the  authorities  to  map  the  lands  bordering 
on  the  salt  marshes  of  Saintonge,  whereby  he  replenished  his  exhausted 
funds,  and  had  means  to  resume  experiments  which  he  had  temporarily 
suspended.  If  this  be  correct,  the  cup  which  inspired  him  could  not  have 
been  from  the  Spanish  vessel  which  was  brought  into  La  Kochelle  in  1543. 

It  is  only  certain  that  after  his  return  to  France  in  1530,  and  his  mar- 
riage, he  continued  for  some  years  his  industrious  life,  as  artist  in  glass, 
with  interruptions  for  work  as  land-surveyor,  until  the  desire  to  discover 
enamel  overtook  him.  M.  Delange  thinks  this  was  about  1550.  This  was 
the  time  of  the  great  glory  of  majolica  in  Italy,  where  many  workshops 


FRANCE.  191 


were  making  enamelled  pottery,  and  before  Palissy  had  discovered  the  art 
in  France  the  decadence  had  gone  far  in  the  Italian  duchies. 

He  says  he  passed  fifteen  years  in  the  search.  With  the  highest  re- 
spect for  artistic  pursuits,  and  all  the  admiration  of  our  own  time  for  ar- 
tistic results,  we  nevertheless  owe  far  more  hearty  sympathy  to  the  wife 
and  family  of  Palissy  than  is  commonly  expended  on  him  during  this  pe- 
riod. He  deserved  thoroughly  whatever  of  misery  he  personally  endured. 
No  reasonable  blame  can  be  attached  to  a  wife  who  regards  herself  as  ill- 
used  by  a  husband  who  leaves  her  and  her  children  to  starve  while  he 
omits  to  provide  for  them,  neglecting  his  trade  and  proper  means  of  live- 
lihood to  pursue  a  fancy.  The  success  of  the  pursuit  has  no  bearing  on 
the  propriety  of  it.  The  achievements  of  fine  art  are  glorious,  but  the 
misery  of  a  wife  and  children  is  in  no  way  compensated  by  the  glory. 
Very  much  of  sentiment  has  been  wasted  on  this  portion  of  the  career  of 
Palissy,  in  books  designed  to  teach  morality,  which  had  better  have  been 
left  unwritten.  The  many  graves  of  his  little  children  in  this  time,  six  at 
least  of  whom  his  wife  mourned,  if  he  did  not,  are  more  eloquent  than  the 
labors  of  their  father,  who  neglected  them  for  the  pursuit  of  his  favorite 
art  project.  In  all  frankness,  no  sensible  woman,  at  least,  can  study  the 
life  of  Palissy  by  the  few  lights  he  himself  throws  on  it,  without  believing 
that  the  ordinary  glamour  of  "artistic  perseverance,"  "noble  determina- 
tion," "  fixed  purpose  to  succeed,"  which  biographers  have  thrown  around 
it,  is  a  false  glitter.  Let  us  not  magnify  art  above  humanity.  It  is  higher 
civilization  to  care  for  the  perfection  of  domestic  happiness  than  to  build 
triumphal  arches.  Many  a  shiftless  man,  calling  himself  an  inventor  in 
pursuit  of  success,  with  starving  wife  and  children  at  home,  justifies  himself 
by  the  example  of  Palissy,  lauded  so  highly  by  his  biographers,  when  he 
ought  to  be  earning  bread  by  doing  what  labor  he  already  knows  how  to 
do.  Art  demands  sacrifices,  but  neither  art  nor  common  sense  demands  or 
permits  that  any  man  shall  sacrifice  anything  that  is  not  his  own  to  give. 
Let  us  draw  true,  and  not  deceptive,  lessons  from  the  history  of  art  and 
the  struggles  of  artists.  The  result  of  Palissy's  labors  was  magnificent 
success.  In  the  sequence  they  were  of  pecuniary  benefit  to  France  and  to 
Europe.  In  our  day  the  reproductions  of  his  works,  which  have  had  wide 
sale  of  late  years,  have  given  employment  to  thousands  of  laborers,  and 
have  introduced  his  art  ideas  into  innumerable  homes.  But  God  forbid 
that  all  this  should  be  in  any  manner  a  justification  of  the  cost  at  which 
he  achieved  success — the  cost  of  an  injured  wife,  a  broken  family,  a  row 
of  little  graves. 

With  all  his  learning,  Palissy  had  never  studied  Aristotle,  and  the 


192 


MODERN  rOTTI.n  7. 


"Novum  Organon"  of  Bacon  was  not  then  written.  The  methods  of  in- 
ductive reasoning  and  experiment  do  not  seem  to  have  been  known  to 
him.  lie  had  no  enamel  from  pottery  to  analyze,  and  could  not  have  an- 
alyzed it  if  he  had  it.  So  it  appears  that  he  experimented  very  much  in 
the  same  way  that  Tsehirnhaus  and  Bottcher  experimented  for  the  uni- 
versal solvent  and  for  porcelain  a  century  and  a  half  later,  by  mixing 
pastes  of  all  sorts  of  substances,  daubing  them  on  bits  of  pottery,  and  bak- 
ing them  in  potters'  furnaces  which  existed  at  Saintes.  This  style  of  ex 
periment  leaves  discovery  more  to  chance  than  to  skill.  But  we  must  not 
form  a  decided  opinion  of  his  processes  with  our  limited  information. 
lie  and  France  could  boast  that,  unlike  Italy,  he  had  no  foreign  instruc- 
tion, and  that  the  art,  so  far  as  Palissy  practised  it,  he  discovered  for  him- 
self.    In  their  other  ceramic  works,  the  potters  of  France  used  the  art  of 

enamel  as  they  learned  it  from 
the  Italians,  who  in  turn  had  re- 
ceived it  in  the  old  line  of  succes- 
sion through  Assyria  from  ancient 
Egypt.  But  Palissy  ware  is  mi 
generis,  without  ancestry,  born  of 
his  brain. 

An  experiment  that  he  baked 
in  the  furnace  of  a  glass-maker, 
instead  of  a  potter,  was  a  success, 
and  gave  him  courage.  A  trial 
piece  melted  in  four  hours,  and 
came  out  white  and  brilliant,  so 
that  he  says,  "  Elle  me  causa  une 
ioye  telle  que  ie  pensois  estre  de- 
venu  nouvelle  creature."  But  the 
end  was  not  yet.  He  does  not 
seem  to  have  known  even  now  of 
what  the  successful  mixture  con- 
sisted. He  built  with  his  own 
hands  an  oven  like  that  of  the 
glass-makers,  mixing  mortar,  car- 
rying brick,  spent  a  month  in 
grinding  materials  for  the  enamel, 


127.  Vase 


incuts. 


Ground 

(Louvre.) 


yellow  orna- 


made  his  earthen  vessels,  and  cov- 
ered them  with  his  paste,  lighted  his  fires,  and  piled  on  fuel,  day  after 
day,  for  six  days  and  six  nights ;    but  the  miserable  mixture  would  not 


FRANCE.  193 

melt.  He  suspected  a  defect,  mixed  other  material,  which  he  thrust  into 
the  hot  furnace,  and  sought  fuel  to  increase  the  fire ;  but  it  was  exhausted, 
as  were  his  pecuniary  resources  and  his  credit.  The  props  of  trees  in  his 
garden  went  into  the  flame  first ;  whatever  of  wood  was  movable  followed  ; 
and,  having  burned  his  furniture,  he  tore  up  the  floor  of  his  house,  and  this 
vanished  last  of  all  in  smoke  with  his  vanished  hopes ;  for  the  experiment 
was  a  failure.  Small  blame  to  his  wife,  who  now  began  to  think  it  time 
for  him  to  look  after  his  family  affairs,  and  utterly  discouraged  his  en- 
amel mania.  He  complains  bitterly  of  his  own  agony,  and  his  wet  shirt, 
which  had  not  been  dry  for  a  month,  so  constant  and  hot  had  been  his 
work. 

But  he  tried  again,  employed  a  potter  to  help  him,  fed  him  on  credit 
at  a  tavern,  discharged  him  at  the  end  of  six  months,  with  his  clothes  for 
his  only  pay,  finished  a  new  furnace  himself,  and  kindled  the  fires  again 
under  his  prepared  materials.  All  the  dignity  and  importance  attending 
his  final  success  fail  to  take  away  the  ridiculous  aspect  of  his  new  trou- 
bles. He  had  mixed  the  mortar  for  his  furnace  with  coarse,  unsifted 
sand,  and  pebbles  will  not  stand  fire.  Himself  appreciated  the  ridiculous- 
ness of  the  scene  when,  in  after-life,  he  described  it.  But  there  was  no 
fun  in  it  then.  The  pebbles  split  and  exploded ;  and  from  within  the 
furnace  came  noises  of  every  kind,  from  the  smallest  crack  to  the  roar  of 
thunder.  Outside,  the  poor  would-be  potter  listened  in  horror  to  the  mys- 
terious sounds;  and  behind  him,  friends  and  family,  hearing  the  confu 
sion  among  the  vases,  doubtless  more  than  ever  believed  the  man  mad. 

But  out  of  this  horrible  furnace  came  the  first  glimmer  of  success. 
The  enamels  on  vases  and  medallions  were  perfect,  but  the  splintered 
stones  had  flown  into  the  melted  enamel  and  adhered,  marring  their 
otherwise  perfect  beauty.  Creditors  who  saw  the  furnace  opened,  wait- 
ing for  pay  in  goods  if  the  result  should  be  successful,  were  willing  to  ac 
cept  the  best  of  the  pieces  at  low  valuations ;  but  Palissy  was  now  a  suc- 
cessful artist,  in  his  own  judgment,  and  broke  the  unlucky  batch  of  work 
to  fragments.  "  They  would  have  been  a  discredit,  and  lowering  of  my 
honor,"  he  said.  "  They  would  have  bought  bread  for  your  family,"  said 
his  sensible  wife,  and  gave  him  a  well-deserved  lecture.  "  Instead  of  con- 
soling me,"  he  says,  "  they  only  gave  me  maledictions."  Whereat,  as 
many  a  man  has  done  under  like  circumstances,  he  sulked,  went  into  his 
house,  and  lay  down  in  melancholy  despair;  for,  as  he  confessed,  he  had 
neither  money,  credit,  nor  any  means  of  support  for  his  family. 

But  his  courage  revived,  he  raised  some  means,  and  tried  again      He 
had  remedied  the  pebble  trouble,  or  the  first  firing  had  burned  it  all  out 

13 


L94 


MODERN  POTT  I  :/>•): 


of  the  mortar.  But  the  ashes  now  soiled  the  enamels.  lie  invented 
seggars  (boxes  of  hard  pottery,  fusible  only  at  higher  temperature  than 
the  objects  they  contain),  and  thus  remedied  this  difficulty;  and, gradually 

overcoming  the  successive  troubles  of  unequal  heat,  and  imperfectly  or 
unequally  fused  enamel,  at  last  produced  merchandisable  objects. 

It  docs  not  appear  that  he  succeeded  in  making  any  perfect  articles  in 
white  enamel — the  object  of  his  long  search — although  the  pieces  which 
had  been  spoiled  by  the  pebbles  were  probably  white.  Perhaps  sound 
good  sense  taught  him  now  to  be  content  with  a  moderate  success.  lie 
made  small  objects,  decorated  with  reliefs,  and  covered  with  mingled  col- 
ors, brown,  blue,  and  white,  mottled  or  splashed  over  the    surface,  com- 


128.  Palissy  Reptile  Dish.     (Sultykoff  Coll.) 


billing  with  each  other,  but  distinct,  as  in  some  stones,  and  therefore  com- 
monly called  his  jaspered  wares.  These  he  disposed  of,  realizing  now  the 
means  of  support  and  of  continuing  his  experiments,  which  led  to  the 
perfection  of  his  work,  exemplified  in  the  "rustiques  figulines,"  which 
brought  him  fame  and  position.  These  are  dishes  and  objects  of  various 
form,  on  which,  in  high-relief,  shells,  lizards,  snakes,  frogs,  fish,  eels,  craw- 
fish, and  other  natural  objects  are  placed  among  leaves,  or  on  rough 
grounds,  the  whole  enamelled  in  colors  —  deep  blue,  yellow,  green,  and 
brown.  The  choice  of  such  objects  seems  to  have  been  characteristic  of 
Palissy,  who  was  a  student  of  natural  history.  He  moulded  the  objects 
from  nature,  and  they  are  remarkably  accurate.  His  shells  are  known 
fossil    shells,  say    those    who   have   studied  the  geology   of  France;   and 


FRANCE.  195 

among  them  are  many  which  he  had  no  need  to  go  into  rocks  to  find,  as 
they  are  common  sea  and  land  shells. 

He  went  from  Saintes  to  La  Bochelle,  remained  there  awhile,  and 
thence  removed  to  Paris,  where  he  enjoyed  at  once  the  patronage  of  the 
court.  If  he  indeed  produced  all  the  works  attributed  to  him  from  this 
time,  a  great  change  must  have  taken  place  in  his  tastes.  Doubt  well 
exists  as  to  the  correctness  of  classing  with  his  own  modelling  a  great 
variety  of  specimens  of  Palissy  ware — that  is,  made  by  him,  or  by  those 
taught  by  him  or  his  productions  —  but  decorated  with  reliefs  in  figures 
from  mythological  story,  and  from  history  sacred  and  profane.  These 
include  a  large  number  of  admirable  works,  in  which  the  ornaments  are 
in  the  usual  Palissy  colors,  while  the  flesh  is,  in  general,  in  gray  tones. 
Some  assign  these  to  one  Bartholomew  Prieur.  Pieces  which  are  repro- 
ductions of  the  pewter  work  of  Francis  Briot  are  also  attributed  to  Pal- 
issy. The  variety  of  forms  in  the  ware  is  great.  Yases,  ewers,  and 
dishes  of  many  shapes,  are  all  characterized  by  the  same  relief  decoration 
and  the  same  general  coloring. 

Reproductions  of  this  work  are  of  course  within  the  ability  of  any 
skilful  potter  of  modern  times.  The  articles  can  be  moulded,  and  the 
colors  exactly  imitated.  This  has  been  done  to  such  an  extent  that  the 
world  is  full  of  the  imitations,  many  of  which  are  equal  to  the  originals, 
and  it  is  therefore  extremely  difficult  to  distinguish  the  genuine  from  the 
false.  Nothing  but  a  good  genealogy  to  the  piece  is  a  satisfactory  guar- 
antee that  it  came  from  the  workshop  of  Palissy.  That  shop  in  Paris,  pro- 
vided by  the  queen,  Catharine  de  Medici,  is  said  to  have  been  on  ground 
now  occupied  by  the  Gardens  of  the  Tuileries,  or  where  the  remains  of  a 
furnace  and  broken  pottery  were  found,  on  the  river  side  of  the  Louvre. 

Among  the  subjects  in  relief  on  pieces  attributed  to  Palissy,  some  of 
the  most  noteworthy  are  the  Rape  of  Proserpine,  the  Story  of  Leda, 
Vertumna  and  Pomona,  Flora  (called  La  Belle  Jardiniere),  Diana,  Jupiter 
and  Calisto,  the  Brazen  Serpent,  Charity  (a  plaque  whereon,  in  an  oval 
frame  of  shells,  the  mother  and  children  are  in  bold  relief,  but  bad 
modelling) ;  the  Baptism  of  Christ,  the  Woman  of  Samaria,  a  portrait  of 
Palissy,  The  Seasons  on  four  plaques.  Certain  figurines,  some  of  which 
are  colored  with  a  deep  red  and  brown,  are  attributed  to  him,  but  these 
are  much  doubted.  A  figurine  in  the  Louvre  Museum  known  as  La 
Nourrlce  (a  woman  holding  a  baby  wrapped  up  in  the  style  of  babies 
in  old  German  pictures)  has  on  the  foot  a  mark  which  also  appears  on 
some  other  figures.  This  specimen  and  mark  have  been  attributed  to 
Palissy,  but  are  now  assigned  to  Avon,  near  Fontainebleau.     A  modern 


100  MODERN  rOTTERY. 


French  potter  at  Tours,  of  great  skill,  has  made  admirable  reproductions 
of  Palissy,  signed  with  his  name,  Avissea/u. 

We  now  proceed  to  a  rapid  review  of  the  various  potteries  of  France, 
among  which  the  most  important  were  those  of  Rouen,  Moustiers,  and 
Nevers ;  but  it  will  be  convenient  to  examine  them  in  alphabetical  order. 

Avon. — In  IOCS  a  pottery  existed  at  Avon,  near  Fontainebleau,  where 
figurines  were  made,  some  of  which  have  been  erroneously  classed  as  by 
Palissy.  Herouard,  physician  to  the  Dauphin,  Louis  XIII.,  describes  a 
figure  une  petite  Nourrice  given  by  the  little  Duke  of  Orleans,  son  of 
Henry  IV.,  to  the  Duchess  de  Montpensier  when  she  visited  him  at  Fon- 
tainebleau ;  and  also  many  animals — squirrels,  dogs,  foxes,  oxen,  cows — an- , 
gels  playing  on  bagpipes  and  flutes,  various  other  figurines,  all  arranged 
on  a  table  by  the  young  dauphin,  as  playthings,  a  quite  large  dog  in  the 
middle,  a  friar  at  one  end,  and  a  dolphin  at  the  other.  The  figure  of 
The  Nurse,  now  in  the  Sevres  Museum,  has  a  mark  which  is  attributed  to 
Avon. 

Aprey.  —  Founded  in  1740- '50.  Ollivier  was  manager,  and  after- 
ward proprietor.  This  pottery  produced  beautiful  work,  in  elegant  forms, 
copied  from  metal  work,  with  rocaille  reliefs  and  admirable  paintings,  es- 
pecially of  birds,  in  bright  colors,  and  flowers,  for  which  an  artist — Jarry 
— is  celebrated. 

Avignon. — Certain  brown  wares  of  pottery,  with  ornaments  in  relief, 
are  attributed  to  Avignon.  Some  are  perforated.  Modern  wares  of 
Swiss  manufacture,  in  brownish-black  glaze,  and  decoration  in  flowers,  are 
sold  by  dealers  as  old  Avignon  ware.  In  this  neighborhood  several  pot- 
teries existed — at  Apt,  Goult,  and  La  Tour  d'Aigues.  The  yellow  glazed 
wares  of  Apt,  with  reliefs,  are  spoken  of  as  in  excellent  taste.  M.  De 
Doni,  Seigneur  de  Goult,  established,  about  1740,  a  pottery  in  his  chateau, 
and  employed  the  best  workmen.  This  fabric  continued  till  1805.  The 
decoration  was  in  Moustiers  style.  The  works  at  La  Tour  d'Aigues 
were  in  operation  in  1773. 

Beauvais. — As  far  back  as  the  fourteenth  century,  pottery  was  made 
at  Beauvais  which  was  held  in  esteem,  and  the  wares  are  mentioned  in 
the  thirteenth  century.  Rabelais,  in  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, speaks  of  a  "goubelet  de  Beauvoys,"  and  of  the  blue  potteries  of  Se- 
vignies,  near  Beauvais.  In  1520,  Francis  I.  and  his  queen  were  passing 
through  Beauvais,  when  "vases  of  Savignies"  were  offered  to  the  queen. 
Doubtful  specimens  of  these  wares  exist,  which  resemble  early  German 
wares. 

Bellevue,  near  Toul.— Founded  in  1758,  aud  sold,  in  1771,  to  Bayard 


FRANCE.  197 

&  Boyer,  who  carried  on  the  works  under  the  title  "  Royal  Manufactory 
of  Belle vue."  They  employed  good  artists,  among  whom  was  Cyffle.  A 
document  has  been  found,  giving  a  list  of  objects  made  here,  with  prices. 
This  includes  many  groups  and  single  figures  of  persons  and  animals,  table 
wares  of  various  kinds,  and  ornamental  pieces,  large  pieces  in  undeco- 
rated  pottery  for  gardens,  pipe -clay  plates,  vessels,  inkstands,  and  other 
articles,  painted  with  corn-flowers,  and  otherwise;  religious  objects,  can- 
delabra, fountains,  coffee  and  tea  pots,  and  a  great  variety  of  other  articles. 

Bordeaux. — Potteries  existed  here  from  1714:,  and  in  1783  six  were 
in  operation.  The  earliest  was  that  of  Jaques  Ilustin.  One  piece  only 
is  known  bearing  his  name.  Raymond  and  Etienne  Monseau  were  deco- 
rators.    Little  is  known  of  the  Bordeaux  products. 

Bourg-la-Reine. — In  1773,  it  is  said,  Jacques  and  Jullien,  already  run- 
ning potteries  at  Mennecy  and  Sceaux,  inscribed  in  the  police  registry 
their  mark  B  R,  for  Bourg-la-Reine,  and  D  V,  f or  Mennecy  -  Villeroy. 
Nothing  is  known  of  their  pottery.  Fine  modern  faience  is  made  here, 
and  largely  exported  to  America. 

Chaumont  -  sur  -  Loire. —  Jean  Baptiste  Nini  produces  medallions  in 
terra-cotta. 

Clermont  (Puy-de-D6me). — Ancient  glazed  ware,  with  net-work  dec- 
oration, like  Avignon,  glazed  to  resemble  tortoise-shell,  is  attributed  to  this 
place.  In  the  beginning  of  the  last  century  fine  enamelled  wares  were 
made,  at  first  imitating  Moustiers,  and  afterward  Rouen  and  other  fac- 
tories. 

Courcelles. — G.  Forterie,  a  surgeon,  made  pottery.  A  puzzle  jug  is 
signed  Forterie  jpere  ancien  chiruryien  a  Courcelles,  1789.  Probably 
Forterie  fils  was  also  a  potter. 

Creil. — About  1790,  M.  St.-Cricq  established  a  pottery,  and  made  ta- 
ble wares  and  other  articles  of  pottery  and  stone  -  ware.  Subsequently 
the  English  firm,  Clark,  Shaw,  &  Co.,  who  were  at  Montereau  and  Men- 
necy, took  this  factory  also,  and  produced  queen's-ware,  in  English  style, 
decorated  with  prints.  The  word  Creil  is  the  mark,  impressed,  some- 
times with  a  small  cross  above  it.  Specimens  have  the  full  name  of 
Stone,  Coquerel  Le  Gros,  or  their  initials,  printed  within  a  circle 
formed  by  the  words  Brevet  oT  invention,  etc.,  etc. 

Desvres.  —  Old  wares  are  known,  probably  prior  to  1764.  Dupre 
Poulaine  made  wares,  with  Chinese  subjects,  flowers,  and  birds,  the  re- 
verses brown,  and  signed  D.  P.,  or  with  the  name  of  the  place. 

Dunkerque. — Louis  Saladin  attempted  to  establish  a  pottery  here  in 
1719;  but  the  potters  of  Lille  succeeded,  after  a  year's  work,  in  driving 


198  MODERN  POTTERY. 


him  away.     One    Duisburg  was    associated  with  him,  and  this  name  is 
found  mi  a  piece  resembling  Delft. 

Lhekaule.  —  An  old  pottery  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  cen- 
turies. Coarse  wares,  brown  and  maroon,  with  ornaments  in  yellow,  red, 
and  white  ;  religious  objects,  images,  etc. 

*  Limoges. — In  1757,  the  Sieur  Massie  founded  a  pottery  here,  but  only 
exceptional  and  no  genuinely  characteristic  specimens  are  known.  The 
place  has  been  more  celebrated  for  porcelains  until  in  quite  modern  times, 
when  decorated  potteries  are  produced  in  great  variety  and  quantit}\ 

Luneville. — The  faience  of  Luneville  is  highly  admired  for  the  deli- 
cacy of  paintings  and  the  beauty  of  the  gold.  It  was  made  during  the 
last  century,  but  little  is  known  of  it.  In  1778  the  pottery  -was  bought 
by  Keller  &  Guerin,  who  signed  K.  &  G.,  according  to  Mr.  Chaffers. 
Figures  of  dogs,  life  size,  were  made  for  door- step  ornaments,  which, 
facing  each  other,  gave  origin  to  the  French  saying,  "  Se  regarder  en 
chiens  de  faience." 

Lille. — In  1696,  Jacques  Febvrier,  a  potter,  and  Jean  Bossu,  a  decora- 
tor, worked  here,  having  come,  on  the  invitation  of  the  authorities,  to  es- 
tablish a  pottery.  Their  signatures  in  full  are  found  on  specimens — port- 
able altars — in  which  Rouen  influence  is  visible.  Febvrier  died  in  1721'; 
and  the  work  was  continued  by  his  widow,  Marie  Barbe  Vandepopeliere, 
and  her  son-in-law,  Francois  Boussemart.  These  claimed  that  their  fabric 
was  the  most  important  in  France,  so  recognized,  and  desired  to  have  it 
declared  a  royal  manufactory.  About  1778  one  Petit  took  the  factory. 
Another  factory  was  established  by  Barthelemi  Dorez  and  his  nephew,  Pe- 
lissier,  about  1712,  which  passed  (1750-'55)  into  the  hands  of  one  Ilereng, 
and,  in  1786,  into  those  of  Hubert  Francois  Lefebvre. 

Another  factory  was  established  in  1740  by  one  Wamps,  who  made 
tiles  like  Delft,  and  was  succeeded  in  1752  by  Jacques  Masquelier,  who 
produced  wares  in  Rouen  style.  Most  of  the  works  of  Lille  were  more  or 
less  like  those  of  Rouen.  The  Febvrier  fabric  included  plates  with  wav- 
ing borders,  rocaille  designs,  insects,  decorated  in  bright  iron-red,  pale  blue, 
lilac,  yellow,  green,  and  mingled  blue  and  yellow.  Baskets  and  masses  of 
fruits  and  flowers  occur.  Many  pieces  are  decorated  in  blue  only.  The 
faiences  of  the  Dorez  factory  are  regarded  as  among  the  most  beautiful  of 
the  work  of  Lille.  The  letter  D,  with  an  accompanying  number,  is  sup- 
posed to  1)0  the  mark,  and  the  fabrics  are  more  in  the  French  and  less  in 
Dutch  style  than  those  of  Febvrier.  Other  works  were  established  at 
Lille  by  Heringle  in  1758,  and  by  an  Englishman — William  Clarke — in 
177:5.     The  latter  went  to  Montereau.     One  Chanon  made  brown  wares 


FRANCE.  199 

of  hard  pottery  for  stoves  and  table  services,  with  tortoise-shell  glaze, 
called  terre  de  Saint  Esprit,  in  the  styles  of  England  and  of  Langnedoc. 

Lyons.  —  Francesco  of  Pesaro  established  a  pottery  at  Lyons  about 
1530.  Gambyn  and  Tardessir,  from  Faenza,  worked  at  the  art  about  1547 ; 
and  Griffo,  from  Genoa,  in  1555.  Little  is  known  of  their  products,  and 
it  is  not  till  1733  that  we  find  Joseph  Combe  and  Jacques  Marie  Ravier 
receiving  a  charter  for  making  faience.  They  were  not  successful,  and 
their  grant  passed  to  a  woman  —  Francoise  Blateran  —  who  carried  on  a 
pottery  for  some  years.  In  1776,  one  Patras  was  proprietor  of  a  pottery, 
and  it  has  been  said  produced  porcelain.  Specimens  of  pottery  are,  with 
great  doubt,  assigned  to  these  various  manufacturers. 

Marans. — Between  1740  and  1745,  Jean  Pierre  Roussencq  made  pot- 
tery not  unlike  Rouen,  and  afterward  in  Saxon  styles. 

Marseilles.  —  Before  1700  a  pottery  produced  wares  resembling 
Moustiers,  with  subjects  after  Tempesta.  A  dish  of  this  kind  is  signed 
A  Clerissy  a  Saint-Jean-du-Dezert,  1697,  a  Marseille :  the  subject,  a  lion- 
hunt,  with  border  in  Oriental  style.  From  this  time,  with  the  exception 
of  one  potter's  name,  Jean  Delaresse,  nothing  is  known  of  the  work  in 
Marseilles  till  the  eighteenth  century.  Specimens  are  probably  classed  as 
of  Moustiers.  In  1750  there  were  ten  potteries  here,  which  produced  so 
much  that  we  are  told  they  exported,  in  1766,  to  the  French-American  isl- 
ands wares  to  the  value  of  one  hundred  and  five  thousand  livres.  The 
makers  were  the  widow  Perrin,  Joseph  Gaspard  Robert,  and  Honore  Savy. 
The  latter  (Savy)  possessed  a  peculiar  green,  but  it  was  closely  imitated  by 
others.  The  mark,  a  fleur-de-lis-^  attributed  to  him  is  doubted.  Robert 
made  wares  decorated  with  flowers,  fish,  and  shells,  in  color  and  in  relief, 
with  insects,  occasionally  with  marine  views  and  other  subjects,  well 
painted.  The  widow  Perrin  made  very  fine  pottery,  decorated  in  va- 
rious styles,  like  those  just  described,  and  on  various  grounds.  A  mark, 
B  in  blue,  is  attributed  to  a  potter,  Antoine  Bonnefoy,  and  F  to  one 
Fauchier. 

Meillonas. — Here  a  lady,  Madame  de  Marron,  Baronnc  de  Meillonas, 
established  a  pottery  in  her  chateau.  She  painted  herself,  and  employed 
artists.  A  signature  of  one  of  these  is  known,  Pidoux,  1765,  a  M'diona. 
The  works  of  this  lady,  wdio  presented  many  of  them  to  her  native  city 
(Dijon),  are  prized  in  Burgundy.  Pieces  painted  by  her  for  her  grand- 
mother, now  in  a  private  collection,  are  marked  with  a  monogram,  A  R. 
Graceful  wreaths  tied  with  ribbons  and  well-painted  landscapes  character- 
ize her  productions. 

Montereau. — In  1775,  Clark,  Shaw,  &  Co.,  Englishmen,  established 


21  Ml 


MODE  US    POTTERY. 


here  a  manufactory  of  queen's -ware,  or  cream  -  ware,  like  the  English. 
The  firm  afterward  united  with  that  at  Creil. 

Moustiers. — This  factory  was   unknown   to  modern   collectors   until 

M.  Davillier  had  his  attention 
called  to  it  by  a  specimen, 
which  led  him  to  examine  and 
develop  the  history.  In  1686, 
Pierre  Clarissy  was  a  potter 
here.  The  dish  which  fell 
into  the  hands  of  M.  Davillier 
was  of  his  fabric.  It  is  oval, 
decorated  with  a  bear -hunt 
after  Tempesta.  The  border 
is  in  arabesques,  griffins,  etc., 
with  cartouches,  in  which  are 
a  deer,  a  wolf,  and  dogs.  The 
dish  is  signed  by  Gaspard 
Viry,  the  decorator.  This  is 
a  type  of  the  earliest  known 
Diame-  elass  of  Moustiers  ware,  large 
pieces,  sometimes  over  two 
feet  in  diameter,  with  designs  from  the  engravings  of  Tempesta,  whose 
works  were  in  favor  in  the  South  of  France.  They  are  executed  in  rich 
blue,  outlined  sometimes  in  violet.  Another  class  following  these  is  dis- 
tinguished by  delicate  borders  and  ornaments  in  the  style  of  the  Berains, 
whose  exquisite  work  for  ornamental  purposes  of  all  kinds  are  familiar 
to  students  of  the  beautiful  old  French  work,  and  of  Boulle,  equally  cele- 
brated. The  pieces  of  this  class  are  characterized  by  delicious  arabesque 
patterns,  founded  on  the  ancient  Roman,  but  disposed  with  great  freedom 
and  luxury  over  the  field  —  griffins,  grotesques,  cupids,  birds,  figures, 
flowers,  and  insects  are  in,  and  form  part  of,  the  arabesque  patterns,  or  are 
scattered  here  and  there.  This  was  a  favorite  style  for  a  long  period. 
About  1745,  Jose ph  Olery  began  to  make  decorated  pottery  here.  His 
marks  distinguish  most  of  his  products,  the  most  common  being  in  part 
the  letter  O,  through  which  passes  an  J2?  M.  Jaequemart,  however,  is  of 
opinion  that  the  number  of  pieces  signed  with  marks  in  which  this  mon- 
ogram occurs  is  so  large,  and  of  such  different  times,  that  they  cannot  all 
be  assigned  to  Olery,  in  which  case  the  mark  is  unexplained.  He  dec- 
orated   in    polychr e,  using    brown,  yellow,  green,  and    violet,   in    rich 

wreaths,  flowers,  and   fruit,  medallions   with   birds,  and   small   picturess 


129.  Moustiers  Dish.    Polychrome  decoration 
ter  13^  inches.     (Reynolds  Coll.) 


FRANCE. 


201 


mythological  and  other  subjects.  Profane  story  and  sacred  history  are 
mingled  on  his  works.  Grotesque  figures,  in  one  or  in  two  colors,  some- 
times in  a  peculiar  green  touched  with  brown,  are  scattered  over  the  sur- 
face of  pieces  with  the  Olery  mark.  In  1789  there  were  eleven  potteries 
in  Moustiers. 

Several  potteries  were  established  in  places  near  to  Moustiers.  Before 
17-40  there  was  one  at  Yarages  ;  in  1734,  one  at  Clermont  -Ferrand  ; 
in  1759,  one  at  Montpellier  (Herault).  There  was  also  one  in  the  last 
century  at  Tavernes.  The  factory  at  Clermont-Ferrand  appears  to 
have  produced  work  decorated  in  the  style  of  the  Berains,  in  imitation 
of  Moustiers. 

Montpellier  produced  coarse  imitations  of  Moustiers  and  of  Mar- 
seilles. 

Nancy. — Nicolas  Belong  founded  a  pottery  in  1774,  but  the  products 
were  unimportant.  In  modern  times  very  beautiful  faience  is  made  here, 
which  is  largely  imported  in  America. 

Narbonne. — M.  Davillier  thinks  there  was  a  pottery  here,  conducted 
by  Moors,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  which  produced  lustred  wares. 

Nevers  has  been  from  the  sixteenth  century  an  important  seat  of 
pottery  manufacture.  Dominique  Conrade,  an  Italian,  with  his  two 
brothers,  established  works  at  Nevers  in  1578,  and  were  the  only  potters 
here  until  1632,  when  Bartholomew  Bourcier  founded  another  factory. 
In  1652  two  more  were  started, 
known  as  the  Ecce  Homo  and  the 
Autruche.  Pierre  Custode  was  the 
owner  of  the  last  named,  "  the  Os- 
trich "  works.  In  the  eighteenth 
century  a  number  of  additional  pot- 
teries were  established.  It  has  been 
supposed  that,  after  the  arrival  of 
the  Conrades,  several  potters  in  the 
neighborhood  had  founded  work- 
shops. 

The  Conrades  professed  to  have 
secrets  in  the  art.  They  used  stan- 
niferous enamel.  M.  Jacquemart 
regards  their  early  work  as  feci  tie, 
and  dates  the  commencement  of  the  fine  art  in  Nevers  from  the  applica- 
tion of  French  hands  to  their  productions. 

lie  divides  the  products  of  Nevers  into  styles  as  follows : 


130.  Faience  Patriotique  of  Xevers.    (T.-P.  Coll.) 


202 


MODERN  POTTERY. 


1.  Franco-Urbino,  with  mythological  subjects,  and  ornaments  from  the 
antique  and  Renaissance:  influence  before  the  Conrades. 

2.  St  vie  [talo- Chinese;  Chinese  or  Italian  subjects  on  Italian  forms; 
blue  color  alone,  heightened  with  manganese,  resembling  Savona  ware: 
influence  of  the  Conrades. 

3.  Italo-Nivernais:  mythological  and  ordinary  subjects;  Italian  and 
( Oriental  ornaments  mixed ;  wreaths  of  flowers  of  the  kind  used  in  the 
enamel  art;  influence  of  that  art  and  of  cloths.  Following  these,  pieces 
with  colored  grounds,  chiefly  blue,  designs  in  white,  pale  yellow,  and  deep 
vellow,  in  style  of  Persian  stuffs  and  of  enamel  work. 

4.  Franco  -  Nivernais :  imitation  of  Rouen  decoration;  degeneracy  of 
Italian  art,  and  of  the  decoration  in  Persian  flowers  on  blue  grounds ;  the 
fabric  commercial,  and  artistically  uninteresting. 

It  is  not  possible  to  assign  Nevers  wares  to  their  different  manufact- 
urers, except  where  marked,  and  marks  are  rare.  Blue  and  yellow  are 
the  more  common  colors  used  in  polychromatic  decoration,  with  lines  of 
white.  Outlines  of  figures  are  in  a  dull  violet.  Hed  and  a  peculiar  green 
are  found.  Goats'  heads,  leaf-shaped  spouts,  dragon  handles,  fruits,  and 
other  objects  are  used  in  the  relief  ornaments.  Subjects  from  mythology, 
history,  and  poetry  are  among  the  paintings.  The  decorations  in  Persian 
style  are  sometimes  very  beautiful,  especially  those  in  white  and  yellow 
on  lapis-lazuli  grounds.  More  rare  are  those  in  white  or  blue  on  yellow 
grounds. 

An  interesting,  but  not  very  artistic,  class  of  Nevers  pottery  was  pro- 
duced in  great  quantity  during  the  latter  part  of  the  last  century,  spec- 
imens of  which  are  called  FaA- 
ences  Pat/riotiques.  It  includes 
articles,  chiefly  plates  and  dishes, 
on  which  are  painted  political  sub- 
jects, mostly  connected  with  the 
French  Revolution.  The  ware  is 
generally  coarse,  and  the  painting 
equally  coarse ;  usually  a  small 
picture,  with  or  without  a  motto 
attached,  flags,  trophies,  carica- 
tures, historical  pieces.  The  illus- 
trations (130, 131)  from  specimens 
in  our  collection  exhibit  the  gen- 
eral character  of  this  faience. 

131,  Faience  Patriotique  of  Severs.     (T. -P.  Coll.)  NlDEKVILLEK.  —  In  1738  there 


FRANCE.  203 

were  thirty-five  furnaces  here.  Its  products  in  faience,  as  in  porcelain,  are 
important,  of  great  variety,  and  often  beautiful.  Jean  Louis,  Baron  de 
Beyerle,  founded  the  factory  in  1754.  The  best  modellers  and  artists 
were  employed,  and  the  best  work  was  produced.  In  1759,  Francois 
Anstette  was  controller  of  the  works,  Baptiste  Main  at  was  director,  Mi- 
chael Martin,  Pierre  Anstette,  and  Joseph  Seeger  were  painters.  Besides 
these,  there  was  a  long  catalogue  of  journeymen  painters,  modellers,  and 
sculptors. 

About  1781,  Count  Custine,  well  known  to  readers  of  American  his- 
tory, bought  the  estate  and  lordship  of  Baron  de  Beyerle,  and  continued 
the  works.  His  mark,  an  interlaced  double  C,  sometimes  surmounted  by  a 
coronet,  must  be  distinguished  from  that  of  Kronenburg  or  Ludwigsburg, 
which  was  usually,  but  not  always,  surmounted  by  a  crown.  The  work 
under  Count  Custine  was  very  fine.  A  remarkable  class  of  work  was 
decorated  to  resemble  veined  woods,  the  decoration  a  card  of  white  paper, 
upon  which  was  a  picture  in  black.  The  corner  of  the  card  was  some- 
times folded  down,  and  the  effect  often  deceptive  to  the  eye.  The  artist's 
name  was  occasionally  signed  under  the  picture  on  the  card,  as  on  an  en- 
graving. We  have  a  dinner  service  of  the  ware,  with  Beyerle's  mark, 
decorated  with  a  single  large  flower,  a  rose,  tulip,  carnation,  or  other 
flower,  in  the  middle  of  each  piece,  and  smaller  flowers  scattered  on  the 
borders.  Fine  faience,  enamelled  wares,  and  porcelain  were  all  made  at 
the  same  time  at  this  factory. 

Orleans. — There  was  a  factory  here  in  1753,  the  charter  of  which  pre- 
scribed the  mark  (an  O),  with  a  crown  in  blue.  Jean  Louis  and  Bernard 
Iiuet  were  figure -modellers.  Many  figures,  large  and  small,  were  pro- 
duced.    The  factory  at  a  later  period  made  porcelain. 

Paris. — Less  is  known  than  might  be  expected  of  the  manufacture  of 
faience  in  Paris.  In  lCO-l,  a  charter  was  given  to  Claude  Reverend,  who 
claimed  that,  by  labor  and  travel,  lie  had  acquired  secrets  in  the  making 
of  faience  and  counterfeit  porcelain  as  fine,  and  finer  than  that  from  the 
East  Indies,  and  that  no  one  in  France  could  equal  him  in  the  art.  The 
charter  was  a  good  one,  but  great  doubt  exists  as  to  whether  it  was  acted 
on.  The  potteries  of  Reverend  are  known,  but  some  authorities  believe 
that  they  are  imported  wares,  made  elsewhere,  and  that  the  charter  was 
used  only  to  cover  such  importations.  M.  Jacquemart  is  clear  that  Reve- 
rend worked  at  Paris.  He  says :  "  The  faiences  of  Reverend  are  now  well 
known.  Their  make  is  excellent,  thin,  with  white  enamel,  painted  in  col- 
ored enamels,  clean,  and  often  excessively  pure.  They  can,  as  the  charter 
says,  rival  those  of  Holland.     It  must  be  confessed  they  are  all  but  conn- 


2o4  MODERN  POTTERY. 


terfeits  in  the  larger  number  of  instances,  and  Reverend  sought  so  care- 
fully to  deceive  consumers  that  his  mark  seems  to  have  been  chosen  only 
to  imitate  certain  Dutch  signatures." 

This  extract  indicates  the  difficulties  which  attend  the  selection  of 
specimens,  and  the  question  whether  he  made  any  pottery  at  Paris.  The 
mark  consists  of  the  letters  A  R  in  monogram.  Another  mark,  L  V,  in 
monogram  is  on  work  almost  identical.  The  styles  of  all  the  work  are 
so  thoroughly  like  Delft  that  no  characteristic  can  be  named  by  which  to 
separate  it. 

Other  potters  may  have  worked  in  Paris,  but  none  are  known  till 
1720,  Francois  Herbert;  in  1730,  one  Genest ;  in  1750,  Jean  Binet. 
None  of  their  works  are  known.  Digne  made  faience  about  1750,  in 
Rouen  styles,  including  pharmacy  jars,  emblazoned  with  arms,  for  the 
Duchess  of  Orleans.  Several  unimportant  potteries  were  established  later. 
It  is  probable  that  all  the  faience  made  in  Paris  was  imitation  of  other 
French  factories,  especially  of  Rouen,  and  that  the  products  are  con- 
founded with  those  of  which  they  were  copies. 

Poitiers. — Figurines  in  pipe-clay  are  known,  one  of  which  is  signed 
A.  Morreine  Poitiers,  1752. 

Pont  de  Yaux. — Leonard  Racle  (Voltaire's  architect)  founded  works 
here  for  large  pieces  of  monumental  character,  and  white  faience  gilded. 

Quimper. — Pottery  in  imitation  of  Rouen  was  made  at  a  factory  estab- 
lished in  1690.  Wares  are  attributed  to  Quimper,  with  gray  enamel,  hav- 
ing large  scrolls  on  black-blue  grounds  ;  also  earthenware  with  yellow  en- 
go  be  and  red. 

Rennes. —  A  mortuary  tablet  in  pottery,  made  at  Rennes,  records  a 
death  in  1053,  and  indicates  the  existence  of  a  pottery  there.  In  174s, 
-lean  Forasassi,  a  Florentine,  began  to  make  faience.  Another  factory 
was  established  shortly  after.  A  group  of  white  enamelled  ware  is  known, 
representing  Louis  XV.,  Ilygeia,  and  Brittany,  signed  Bourgouin,  1704. 
A  jug  of  glazed  ware  is  signed  Fait  a  Rennes  Rue  Hue,  1769.  The  works 
of  the  Rue  Hue  factory  are  fine,  sometimes  in  Moustiers  style.  White 
vases,  with  large  flowers  in  blue,  or  in  blue  and  lemon  color,  common  in 
Brittany,  arc  supposed  to  be  early  work  of  Rennes. 

From  1700  to  1785,  plates,  marriage-cups,  stoves,  religious  figures,  and 
groups  were  made. 

Rexao. — A  mark  R  is  attributed  to  this  place,  on  a  plate  with  bou- 
quets in  the  style  of  Rennes,  but  a  coarser  faience. 

Rioz. — M.  Jacquemart  records  the  fact  that  a  shoemaker  here  made  poor 
pottery  by  way  of  illustrating  the  proverbial  "ne  sutor  ultra  crepidam." 


FRANCE. 


205 


La  Rochelle. — About  1673  a  pottery  was  established  here,  and  early 
in  the  next  century  Jacques  Bornier  founded  another,  which  stopped  in 
1735.  Jean  Bricqueville  revived  the  work  in  1743.  A  plate  signed  I  B 
is  attributed  to  him.  The  later  works  were  in  the  style  of  Strasbourg, 
with  exaggerated  colors.  Hoses  elongated  to  deformity  characterize  the 
products. 

Rouen. — The  potteries  of  Rouen  are  more  important  than  any  others 
of  France.  While  the  Lady  of  Oiron  and  her  son  were  making  their  ex- 
quisite wares,  and  Palissy  was  groping  in  the  dark  after  the  secret  of 
enamel,  and  Girolamo  Delia  Robbia  was  using  it  in  decorating  houses  and 
grottoes  in  Paris,  one  Masseot  Abaquesne,  living  in  Rouen,  was  making 
enamelled  potteiy,  the  few  relics  of  which  now  existing  lead  to  the  con- 
viction that  it  possessed  considerable  beauty.  The  old  chateau  of  Ecouen, 
the  seat  of  the  Montmorency  family,  built  in  the  early  part  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  had  a  remarkable  pavement,  which  was  long  discussed  by 
antiquarians ;  by  some  assign- 
ed to  Italian  makers,  by  others 
to  Palissy.  It  was  at  length, 
however,  ascertained  that  this 
was  the  work  of  Abaquesne, 
at  Rouen.  A  queer  old  doc- 
ument exists,  which  in  long 
legal  phraseology  discharges 
the  constable  (Montmorency) 
from  a  claim  on  account  of 
tiles  of  enamelled  pottery 
which  he  and  his  wife  Marion, 
and  his  son  Laurens,  who  seem 
to  have  been  jointly  interested 
in  the  business,  had  made  for 
the  constable.  Another  docu- 
ment, published  by  M.  Gosse- 
liri,  shows  that  Abaquesne 
made  apothecaries'  pots  of  enamelled  ware.  In  the  Hotel  de  Ville  at 
Havre  he  decorated  a  "salle  faiencce"  in  1535.  He  was  still  at  work 
making  tiles  in  1557,  and  widow  and  son  continued  work  after  his  death. 
Thus  early  begins  the  history  of  Rouen  pottery  ;  but  there  is  a  long  hiatus 
in  the  history  from  this  time.  The  Due  d'Aumale  has,  or  had,  two  pict- 
ures formed  of  these  tiles  of  Abaquesne.  The  groups  were  each  five  feet 
three  inches  by  six  feet  four  inches,  consisting  of  two  hundred  and  thirty- 


Rouen  Dish.     Diameter  22  inches.     (Reynolds  Coll.) 


200 


MODERN  POTTERY. 


eight  tiles.     The  one  set  have  a  representation  of  Marcus  Curtius,  the 

other  of  Mutius  Scawola.  One  set  Las  the  mark  A  Rouen,  1542.  A 
tile  from  the  Chateau  d'Ecouen,  in  our  collection,  is  richly  colored,  with 
sheaves  of  wheat  and  fleurs-de-lis,  deep  blue  and  yellow,  with  touches  of 
brown. 

In  1640,  Nicolas  Poirel  received  a  charter  for  making  faience  at  Rouen, 
which  he  afterward  transferred  to  Edme  or  Esmon  Poterat,  then  a  potter 
at  Rouen,  to  whom  another  charter  was  granted  in  1673.  From  this  time 
decorated  wares  were  made.  The  early  wares  were  painted  chiefly  in 
blue,  and  much  in  the  same  styles  with  those  made  at  Delft,  in  Holland, 

and  it  is  practically  impossi- 
ble in  many  cases  to  deter- 
mine at  which  place  a  spec- 
imen wras  produced.  The 
early  wares  imitated  the 
Chinese,  which  they  were 
designed  to  rival.  A  single 
dated  specimen  is  known 
of  1610,  but  no  other  until 
1699.  The  latter,  a  bowl, 
is  signed  Brument.  The 
styles  of  Rouen  pottery  be- 
came in  time  peculiar,  so 
that  much  of  the  ware  is 
unmistakable.  The  poly- 
chrome     decorations       in- 

133.  Faience  a  la  Cornc.     (Rouen.)  cluded    &  remarkable  mii()U 

of  blue  and  red,  with  more  or  less  yellow,  and  comparatively  slight  use 
of  other  colors.  The  prevailing  blue  tint  is  striking,  and,  once  seen,  not 
easily  forgotten. 

Certain  forms  of  Rouen  decoration  are  known  as  Lambrequin,  Lace, 
Rayonnant,  and  A  la  corne,  from  their  prevalent  characters.  The  distinc- 
tions are  not  always  complete,  one  style  running  into  another,  or  one 
piece  uniting  more  than  one  style.  Nor  is  it  clear  that  those  using  these 
terms  have  any  well-defined  notion  of  what  constitutes  the  difference. 
Faience  a  la  corne  is  that  which  has  the  cornucopia  prominent  in  the  dec- 
oration. The  style  rayonnant  is  technically  that  which  is  marked  by  a 
division  of  a  circular  piece  into  sections  by  rays  of  decoration  proceeding 
from  the  central  to  the  border  ornamentation.  Lace  and  lambrequin 
patterns  are  to  be  understood  from  their  names,  the  lambrequin  being, 


FRANCE.  207 

in  fact,  lace  patterns  arranged  in  separate  groups,  looking  somewhat  as  if 
they  could  be  cut  out  separately  as  pendants  of  a  lambrequin. 

Among  the  Rouen  styles  are  dark  blue  on  pale  blue ;  black  arabesques 
on  yellow-ochre  grounds ;  white  scrolls  on  blue  grounds,  with  red  touches ; 
baskets  of  red,  green,  yellow,  and  white  flowers,  supported  on  green  and 
yellow  scrolls ;  flowers  and  bouquets  among  heavy  scroll  patterns,  looking 
like  work  in  iron.  Vases  are  sometimes  decorated  with  pictures,  in  which 
the  draperies  are  red  and  yellow,  the  peculiar  yellowish  red  of  Rouen  pre- 
dominating in  the  other  ornamentation,  which  is  of  tulips  and  various 
large  flowers.  Plates  have  the  entire  field  covered  with  pictures  in  pale 
blue,  with  slight  touches  of  green,  yellow,  and  red,  while  the  borders  are 
dark  blue,  with  flowers  in  white,  green,  and  red.  A  striking  decoration  is 
in  flowers  grouped  in  Chinese  style,  colored  red  and  white,  with  leaves  in 
dark  blue  on  ground  nearly  black.  The  general  aspect  of  Rouen  faience 
is  more  odd  and  striking  than  beautiful. 

It  is  said  that  in  171 8,  when  Louis  XIV.  sent  his  plate  to  be  coined 
for  the  expenses  of  the  war,  he  ordered  a  service  of  Rouen  ware  to  sup- 
ply its  place.  A  soup-tureen,  in  the  form  of  a  turkey,  said  to  be  of  this 
service,  was  sold  at  the  Bolm  sale  in  London,  March,  IS 77,  for  two 
pounds  ten  shillings. 

There  are  many  marks  of  potters  or  artists  found  on  Rouen  wares, 
but  few  are  assignable  to  their  owners.  Confusion  exists  between  some 
of  these  and  some  of  the  Delft  marks. 

Saintes. — In  the  time  of  Palissy  there  were  potteries  near  here,  and 
he  employed  their  ovens  in  his  experiments.  M.  Fillon  describes  a  drink- 
ing-flask,  decorated  with  roses  and  tulips,  on  which  is  PF  d  Vimage  JV.  D. 
d  Saintes,  1680.  In  1788  four  potteries  wrere  at  work,  and  in  1791  two 
others.  Nothing  is  known  of  their  products.  At  Erizamboukg,  near 
Saintes,  Enoch  Dupas  was  a  potter  in  1600,  making  pottery  with  stamped 
or  impressed  work,  and  in  marbled  colors,  with  green  bottoms.  At  La 
Chapelle  -  des  -  Pots,  near  Saintes,  which  was  the  place  where  Palissy 
found  his  assistance  from  potters,  blue  and  marbled  wares  were  made. 

St.  Amand. — This  fabric  was  founded  before  1710  by  Pierre  Joseph 
Fauquez,  also  a  potter  at  Tournay.  He  wTas  succeeded  by  his  son,  who 
was  again  succeeded  by  a  son  in  1773.  The  work  is  characterized  by  a 
bluish  glaze,  on  which,  among  other  colors,  a  white  enamel  is  applied. 
Rouen  styles  were  imitated.  On  a  fountain  is  a  dolphin  in  relief,  the 
scales  heightened  with  blue,  while  the  sides  have  ornaments  in  white. 
Pieces  were  made  in  Strasbourg  style,  with  bouquets  and  birds,  and  in  the 
same  style  intermingling  with  the  white -enamel  ornaments.     Lace  pat- 


208  MODERN  POTTERY. 


terns  are  \\>^\  in  the  white  around  wreaths  of  flowers,  with  medallions, 
in  which  are  colored  designs.  White  flowers  alternate  with  colored. 
Charming'  decoration  was  done  by  a  painter — Alexandre  Garni ry— in  ani- 
mals, pastoral  subjects,  scenes  from  Lafontaine's  fables,  and  other  groups. 
Flowers  were  painted  by  Jean  Baptiste  Desmnraille,  tulips,  roses,  and 
pinks  predominating  in  bouquets.  Violet,  golden  red,  and  a  rich  green 
were  his  best  colors.  A  red  or  brown  line,  sometimes  gilded,  encloses  the 
pieces,  and  scalloped  borders  are  colored  blue,  red,  and  green. 

St.  Cloud.  —  A  fine  plate,  decorated  with  bine  arabesques,  bears  the 
mark  known  as  that  of  Trou  on  porcelain.  In  1690  there  was  a  pottery 
here,  probably  that  of  Chicanneau,  who  discovered  the  art  of  making  soft- 
paste  porcelain  in  1695. 

Certain  pieces,  heavy,  coarse,  with  imitations  of  Rouen  in  dark  blue 
outlined  with  black,  are  attributed  to  some  unknown  factory  at  St.  Cloud. 

St.  Paul. — Pottery  of  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries.  De- 
signs made  with  patterns  pricked  in  paper.     Mark  S.  Paul  impressed. 

Sainte  Foy. — A  pilgrim's  bottle  is  known,  with  figures  in  costume 
of  Louis  XY.,  signed  Fait  par  moi  Larozejils  a  Sainte  Foy. 

Samadet.  —  Pottery  made  from  about  1732,  of  excellent  character. 
The  enamel  was  fine  and  white.  Birds  and  fiowers  were  well  painted. 
Fruits  are  mingled  with  fiowers  and  foliage.  Pieces  have  bouquets,  with 
the  look  of  Persian  stuffs ;  iron-red  poppies,  with  drooping  leaves,  yellow 
or  lilac  flowers,  leaves  varying  from  yellow  to  green  and  with  the  two 
colors  mingled.     The  manufacture  continued  till  modern  times. 

Sakreguemines. — Established  1770,  by  Paul  Utzchneider.  Wares  in 
imitation  of  stones,  granite,  jasper,  etc.  Raised  figures  in  white  on  blue 
and  other  grounds.  Red  stone -ware.  The  factory  continues,  and  now 
makes  beautiful  faience  of  all  kinds  for  commerce,  much  of  which  comes 
to  America. 

Sceaux. — In  1748  an  architect,  De  Bey,  having  possession  of  pottery 
works,  called  to  his  aid  Jacques  Chapelle,  a  potter,  and  subsequently  these 
brought  into  association  with  them  three  others — Delanee,  Minard,  and  De 
Chateauneuf.  This  firm  collapsed  in  1749,  and  nothing  appears  of  their 
work.  In  1750,  De  Bey  and  Chapelle  began  to  make  "Japanese  faience," 
enamelled  pottery  of  good  paste,  imitating  in  decoration  the  Oriental 
porcelains.  They  now  tried  to  make  porcelain,  but  the  Vincennes  (after- 
ward Sevres)  royal  works  sought  to  stop  them.  Litigation  ensued,  in 
which  they  were  successful,  and  the  works  went  on,  making,  in  the  end, 
both  pottery  ami  porcelain.  The  pottery  was  very  fine,  decorated  with 
mouldings   and   reliefs,  with    fine   white   enamel,  bouquets,  emblems,  and 


FRANCE.  209 

those  pretty  groups  of  Cupids  in  clouds  which  are  also  seen  on  Sceaux 
porcelain ;  wreaths  of  laurel  and  arabesques  in  gold  and  color  character- 
ized the  ornamentation.  In  1763,  Jullien,  a  decorator  in  the  works,  took 
a  lease  of  them  from  Chapelle,  and  formed  a  partnership  with  ( lharles 
Symphorien  Jacques,  a  sculptor  and  modeller.  These  two  also  conducted 
the  works  at  Mennecy- Villeroy.  In  1772,  Richard  Glot,  a  sculptor, 
bought  the  pottery,  and  all  the  secrets,  arts,  etc.,  of  Chapelle.  Groups, 
figures,  and  graceful  products  increased,  the  porcelain  fabric  being  now  in 
full  progress.  Glot  used  for  his  mark  an  anchor,  in  allusion  to  the  Due 
de  Penthievre,  High  Admiral  of  France,  his  protector.  At  one  time  he 
added  to  it  the  letters  S.  P. ;  at  another,  the  wrord  Sceaux.  His  faience 
is  beautiful ;  sometimes  with  figures  of  children  moulded  on  lids  of 
pieces,  and  man}'  varieties  of  color  decoration,  fiowTers,  scattered  bouquets, 
corn-flowers,  and  subjects  well  painted.  A  class  of  Glot's  work  is  in  a 
yellow  paste,  resembling  pipe-clay,  on  which  the  decorations  appear  dull. 

Sevres. — The  royal  porcelain  factory  has  not  been  credited  wTith  any 
works  in  faience.  Nevertheless,  it  is  probable  that  such  work  has  been 
made  there,  at  least  in  modern  times.  After  the  late  war  with  Germany, 
several  large  faience  urns,  designed  for  decoration  of  terraces  or  gardens, 
of  which  we  have  a  specimen,  were  bought  in  Paris  and  brought  to  Amer- 
ica. These  are  fine  enamelled  work,  marbled  in  rich  colors  outside,  and 
white  within,  bearing  the  usual  factory  mark  of  porcelain,  the  date  in  an 
oval,  in  large  size.  Were  they  possibly  exceptional  work  ordered  for 
imperial  use  before  the  war,  and  diverted  from  their  original  destination? 

Other  potteries  seem  to  have  existed  at  Sevres.  About  17S5  one 
Lambert  produced  work  of  fine  forms. 

Sinceny. — Pottery  works  Mrere  here  from  1737.  Many  of  the  prod- 
ucts are  undistinguishable  from  those  of  Rouen.  After  a  time  the  Stras- 
bourg styles  were  copied  closely.  The  name  of  Pelleve,  an  artist,  is  on  a 
jardiniere. 

Strasbourg. — We  retain  the  old  classification  of  Strasbourg  as  French. 
Charles  Francis  Hannong  established  a  pipe  factory  here  in  1709.  Prior 
to  this  it  is  probable  that  pottery  had  been  made  in  the  styles  of  Nurem- 
berg, but  we  know  none  of  it.  Hannong  rapidly  advanced  from  the  mak- 
ing of  pipes  to  the  production  of  faience'  and  porcelain.  Jean  Henri 
Wackenfeld,  one  of  the  workmen  who  had  been  employed  in  porcelain- 
making  in  Germany,  an  art  then  jealously  guarded  as  a  secret,  and  who 
had  fled  to  Strasbourg  with  what  knowledge  he  possessed,  was  employed 
by  Hannong  in  1721,  and  the  two  united  their  knowledge  of  earthen- 
wares in  the  improvement  of  the  Strasbourg  products.     New  works  were 

11 


210  MODERN  POTTERY. 


established  at  Haguenau,  near  Strasbourg.  Charles  Ilannong  gave  up 
the  management  to  his  sons,  Paul  Antoine  and  Balthazar,  and  died  in 
L729.  In  1737,  Balthazar  took  the  Haguenau,  and  Paul  the  Strasbourg 
works.  The  latter  made  good  faience,  decorated  especially  with  flowers 
and  insects,  and  in  1744  added  a  line  gilding  which  he  had  discovered, 
the  first  specimens  of  which  he  presented  to  Louis  XV.  on  his  passage 
through  Strasbourg.  The  royal  manufactory  at  Sevres  in  1754  inter- 
rupted his  manufacture  of  porcelain,  and  as  he  was  forbidden  to  continue 
it,  his  wwks  were  suspended,  and  he  left  Strasbourg.  His  son,  Pierre  An- 
toine, revived  the  pottery  in  1760.  He  offered  to  sell  to  Sevres  the  secret 
of  hard-paste  porcelain,  but  that  bargain  failed,  and  he  and  his  brother  Jo- 
seph Adam  continued  to  make  pottery  till  1760,  when  the  restrictions  on 
porcelain-making  in  France  were  so  far  removed  that  decoration  in  one 
color  was  permitted  to  any  makers,  and  they  again  made  porcelain.  But 
debt  overwhelmed  him,  and  he  was  compelled  to  leave  France,  dying  in 
Germany.     The  potteries  of  Strasbourg  were  closed  in  1780. 

The  faience  of  Strasbourg  is  not  of  the  highest  class.  The  paste  is 
coarse,  the  enamel  is  pure,  with  ornaments,  relief  work,  and  painting  in 
good  style  of  flowers  and  subjects.  Ornamental  as  wrell  as  useful  wares 
were  produced.  The  flower  paintings  resemble  those  of  Marseilles,  but 
the  latter  can  be  distinguished  by  a  slight  relief,  detected  by  passing  the 
finger  over  the  surface. 

The  Haguenau  works  continued  under  various  management  to  nearly 
the  close  of  the  century,  their  products  resembling  those  of  Strasbourg. 

Thouaes. — Oiron,  near  this  point,  was  the  seat  of  the  faience  d'Oiron, 
and  potteries  here  and  in  the  neighborhood  were  numerous — at  Rigne 
( 1771),  at  Ciief-Boutonne  (1778),  at  Fontenay  (blue  and  marbled  wares, 
1558-'81),  at  Ile-d'  Elle  (1636  under  Rolland,  and  1735-'42  under  Pierre 
(iirard). 

Tours. — Works  were  here  in  the  last  century,  of  Thomas  Sailly  and  of 
M.  Epron.  In  the  museum  at  Tours  is  a  pair  of  sphinxes  signed  Dupont, 
17!>7,  a  workman  of  M.  Epron. 

Valenciennes. — About  1735,  Francois  Louis  Dorez  came  from  Lille 
and  established  work  here.  His  initials  L.  D.  in  monogram  may  possibly 
marls'  his  work.  In  1772,  G.  J.  Becar  founded  a  pottery,  but  seems  to 
have  been  unsuccessful.     Small  images  in  pipe-clay  are  assigned  to  him. 

Vinck.xxes. — It  is  supposed  that  pottery  was  made  here  at  about  the 
time  of  the  establishment  of  the  porcelain  works  (afterward  of  Sevres), 
by  those  who  were  experimenting  on  the  production  of  porcelain.  A 
piece  is  known  with  the  interlaced  double  L  on  the  bottom. 


GERMANY. 


211 


Other  faience  factories  were  established  in  France  at  various  places, 
among  which  are  the  following,  whose  works  are  not  important,  unless  of 
exceptional  artistic  character: 


Aire,  1730. 
Angouleme,  1784. 
Arbois,  1746. 
ArxERRE,  1798. 
boisette-le-roi,  1733. 
Boulogne,  1788. 
C'ambrai,  1540-1646. 
Ohatillon,  1766. 
Dangu,  1753. 
Digoin,  1788. 
Dijon,  1791. 
Douai,  1782. 


Epernay,  1761. 
Goincourt,  1795. 
Langres,  1788. 
Le  Croissic,  1627. 
Les  Islettes,  1737. 
Ligeon  ;  eighteenth  century. 
Macon,  1791. 
Malicorne,  1700. 
Marignac,  1737. 
Matiiaut,  1749. 
Melun,  1791. 
Meldon,  1726. 


Montigny,  1739. 

Nantes,  1588-1751. 
Nimes,  1702. 
Ognes,  1748. 
Pontailler,  1600(?). 
Premieres,  1 783. 
Rambervillers,  1780(V). 
St.  Clement,  17">o. 
St.Omer,  1750. 
Thionville,  1756. 
Vaucoitleurs,  1738. 
Villers  Cotterets,  1737. 


The  student  who  seeks  further  information  on  French  potteries  will 
consult  M.  Jacquemart's  "  Histoire  de  la  Ceramique,"  and  the  "  Guide  de 
1' Amateur"  of  M.  Demmin,  as  well  as  other  works  on  special  fabrics, 
which  are  named  in  the  preface. 


an 


; —    t. — ■ — irw 


>ll        iu^-j|il|l 


VI.-GERMANY. 

"We  have  now  to  examine  a  history  of  the  beginning  of  which,  un- 
fortunately, very  little  is  known.  If  the 
authorities  correctly  describe  the  ancient 
tiles  found  in  Germany  as  enamelled, 
then  long  before  the  art  of  enamelling 
pottery  was  introduced  into  the  South  of 
Europe  it  had  been  practised  in  the 
Northern  regions.  Unglazed,  glazed,  and 
enamelled  potteries  were  made  in  Ger- 
many certainly  as  early  as  the  thirteenth 
century,  and  probably  long  before  that. 
The  making  of  unglazed  pottery  is,  as  we 
well  know,  an  art  common  to  all  peoples, 
civilized  and  savage.  We  have  no  need 
to  ask  its  origin  among  any  race.  Glazed  134.  Nuremberg  stove  Tile:  St.  Mark, 
potteries  were  made  in  various  parts  of  Dark  *>'"*"•     (T"p- Coll) 

Europe  in  early  and  late  Roman  times,  and  there  is  nothing  to  cause  sur- 
prise in  finding  it  continuously  produced  in  Germany.  But  the  use  of 
stanniferous  enamel  has  in  almost,  if  not  quite  all,  cases  been  transmitted 


212 


MODERN  POTTERY. 


from  country  to  country  and  age  to  age.  We  do  not  know  certainly  that 
the  Chinese  derived  it  from  the  West,  but  we  have  reason  to  believe 
it.     How,  then,  did  the  Germans  in  the  north  country  acquire  it?     Was 

it  indeed  an  original  invention  with  them,  derived  by  the  accidental  use 
of  tin  at  some  period  ?  Is  there  some  lost  line  of  the  art,  yet  to  be  traced 
from  Europe,  along  the  track  of  the  Aryo-Germanic  immigrations,  which 
will  take  us  back  to  the  manufactures  of  Central  Asia  in  ancient  days? 
Did  it  come  from  the  Rhodians  who  made  the  tiles  for  St.  Sophia?  Or 
did  some  roving  Saracens  wander  northward  with  the  art,  and  introduce 
it  among  the  German  races,  teaching  them  how  to  add  beauty  of  color 
and  surface  to  their  unglazed  potteries  ? 

These  questions  can  only  afford  subject  for  conjecture  until  more  is 
known  of  the  historical  remains  of  the  art.  It  is  not  impossible  that  a 
separate  line  of  history  may  be  established  from  the  Byzantine  arts  in  the 
time  of  Justinian  to  and  through  the  North  of  Europe.  It  is  specially 
interesting  to  us,  since  through  Germany,  rather  than  the  South  of  Eu- 
rope, the  art  as  practised  in  England  must  trace  its  origin. 

A  notion  prevailed  for  a  long  time  that  a  potter  at  Schelstadt,  in  Al- 
satia,  invented  glazed  pottery.     But  this  notion  was   perhaps  due  to  a 

statement  in  an  old  writer  that  the 
potter  who  first  introduced  glazed  ware 
into  Alsatia  died  at  Schelstadt  in  1283. 
Germany  abounds  in  ancient  pot- 
tery wares,  covered  with  lead  glaze, 
which  are  of  the  centuries  prior  to  the 
thirteenth.  Stoves  made  of  enamelled 
tiles  are  numerous,  and  of  very  old 
fabric.  These  tiles  were  usually  dec- 
orated with  relief  subjects,  many  of 
them  highly  characteristic  works  of 
old  art.  Ancient  brick  churches  were 
erected  with  various  external  architec- 
tural ornaments  in  pottery,  which  still 
def}T  time.  Among  these  numerous  re- 
mains of  early  art,  it  is  desirable  to 
know  more  exactly  than  we  are  yet  in- 
formed what  are  the  oldest  specimens 
of  stanniferous  enamel.  M.  Demmin 
has  thrown  much  light  on  the  subject,  but  we  need  much  more. 

The  Convent  of  St.  Paul  at  Leipsic,  was  built  1207.     In  the  building 


136.  German  Stove  Tile.     (Barron  Coll.) 


GERMANY.  213 


was  a  frieze  of  tiles,  having  relief  subjects  representing  heads  of  Christ 
and  the  apostles.  At  the  demolition  of  the  convent  these  were  scattered 
or  destroyed.  M.  Demmin  secured  one,  on  which  is  a  head  of  Christ. 
This  tile,  he  says,  is  covered  with  stanniferous  enamel,  and  colored  green 
shading  into  black. 

At  Bkeslau,  in  Silesia,  the  Ivreuzkirche  was  founded  by  Duke  Henry 
IV.,  in  1288.  The  monument  of  Duke  Henry  in  this  church,  made  of 
pottery,  green  and  red,  described  as  enamelled,  is  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant early  ceramic  works  in  Europe.  It  consists  of  a  sarcophagus,  on 
which  the  life-size  effigy  of  the  duke  reposes.  The  sarcophagus  is  sur- 
rounded by  twenty-one  full-length  figures  in  relief,  with  winged-cherub 
heads  between  them.  The  figure  of  the  duke  is  well  executed.  He  lies 
on  his  back  with  folded  hands,  his  shield  on  his  side,  his  head  supported 
by  a  pillow.  The  entire  character  of  the  work  leaves  no  reasonable  ques- 
tion that  it  was  executed  about  1300  a.d. 

At  Brandenburg,  in  the  Church  of  St.  Katharine,  built  1401,  the 
church  itself  a  fine  specimen  of  old  brick-work,  at  the  end  of  the  tran- 
septs are  large  screens  of  pottery,  glazed  or  enamelled  dark  green,  made 
in  open-work,  and  statuettes  of  the  same  material  in  niches. 

At  Lubeck,  the  old  Rathhaus,  on  the  market-place,  a  curious  brick 
building,  erected  in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries,  has  alternate 
courses  of  red  unglazed  and  green  glazed  or  enamelled  bricks. 

Throughout  Germany  such  remains  of  the  art  abound.  It  is  not  prob- 
able that  the  enamelled  tiles  of  the  convent  at  Leipsic  were  the  first  of 
their  kind.  The  art  had  probably  been  practised  before  1200  in  all  parts 
of  Germany,  and  has  continued  in  use,  without  interruption,  down  to  the 
present  time. 

The  Hirschvogels  of  Nuremberg  are  the  earliest  artist  -potters  of 
whom  we  have  any  knowledge,  but  they  were  probably  preceded  by  a 
long  line  of  able  workmen. 

Nuremberg. — Veit  Ilirschvogel  was  born  in  1441,  and  lived  till  1525. 
He  had  three  sons,  who  were  potters  after  him.  He  was  a  glass-painter, 
sculptor,  and  artist  in  pottery.  He  lived  in  a  time  when  Nuremberg  was 
a  mother  of  arts.  The  fifteenth  century  witnessed  a  remarkable  advance 
in  science  and  art  in  the  old  town,  unparalleled  in  the  history  of  any 
other  city  of  Europe.  The  first  paper-mill  in  Germany  had  been  started 
in  Nuremberg  in  1390;  and  Koburger  established  his  twenty-four  print- 
ing-presses there  within  a  century  later.  Johann  Miiller,  Regiomontanus 
made  Nuremberg  his  home  in  1471,  and  his  great  genius  made  the  place  a 
scientific  centre,  as  he  established  his  observatory,  and  issued  his  learned 


214  MODE  UN  POTTERY. 


works  from  the  Nuremberg  press.  Peter  Jlele  invented  at  Nuremberg, 
in  1500,  "Nuremberg  eggs,"  the  first  watches.  The  goldsmiths  of  Nu- 
remberg had  world-wide  reputation  for  exquisite  work.  Adam  Kraft,  the 
mighty  workman  in  iron,  born  in  1430,  enriched  the  Church  of  St.  Lau- 
rence with  his  grand  Hauslein  for  the  reception  of  the  Host;  and  Peter 
Visscher,  horn  1455,  and  his  five  sons,  made  their  city  renowned  for  like 
work  in  metal.  Yeit  Stoss,  sculptor,  painter,  and  wood-carver,  grew  blind 
over  his  wonderful  productions.  Then,  towards  the  close  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  came  Albert  Diirer  to  the  old  town,  to  give  new  birth  to  all  the 
arts,  and  wield  such  a  power  on  the  whole  art  world  as  no  other  one  man 
ever  wielded  in  all  the  ages.  Thus  the  useful  and  ornamental  arts  were 
advancing  with  gigantic  strides  in  Nuremberg. 

When  we  look  at  the  rise  and  growth  of  the  ceramic  art  in  a  city  like 
Urbino,  in  Italy,  in  the  midst  of  a  general  revival  of  arts  which  made  that 
city  the  Athens  of  Italy,  and  turn  to  the  North  to  look  at  a  precisely  sim- 
ilar condition  of  affairs  in  Nuremberg,  we  cannot  fail  to  be  struck  with 
the  fact  that  at  the  same  date  the  same  progress  should  suddenly  com- 
mence, in  the  South  under  the  fostering  care  of  noble  patrons,  in  the 
North  simply  under  the  impulse  which  the  popular  love  of  art  began  to 
give  it.  Raphael,  born  in  Urbino  in  1483,  was  enabled  to  reform  and 
elevate  the  entire  art  standard  of  Italy,  because  the  wealthy  and  noble  of 
Italy  were  his  patrons.  Diirer,  the  first  of  modern  men  to  make  an  en- 
graving relate  a  story  or  illustrate  an  epic,  working  for  the  masses  in  Ger- 
many, and  supported  by  the  small  contributions  of  the  mechanic  and  arti- 
san who  bought  his  works,  more  than  by  the  rich  who  also  bought  them, 
infused  into  the  German  mind  a  thorough  knowledge  and  love  of  the 
same  elevated  art  standard.  The  art  fostered  by  patronage  in  Italy  pro- 
duced the  beautiful,  but  did  not  lead  Italians  to  unite  the  beautiful  with 
the  useful ;  whereas  in  Germany,  the  people,  high  and  low,  sustaining 
their  great  teachers,  accepted  from  them  lessons  which  they  at  once  util- 
ized, and  Germany  from  that  time  forward  led  Europe  in  the  union  of  the 
useful  with  the  ornamental  in  art. 

Maestro  Giorgio,  in  Gnbbio,  made  vases  and  costly  dishes  to  adorn  the 
homes  of  the  wealthy ;  and  in  fifty  years  the  art  of  Giorgio,  never  practi- 
cally useful,  had  died,  and  Italy  ceased  to  make  majolica.  The  art  had  no 
educational  effect  on  the  people  of  Italy.  Veit  Ilirschvogel  and  his  sons, 
in  Nuremberg,  made  stoves  as  well  as  vases;  and  their  art  went  into  the 
home-life  of  all  classes  in  Germany;  survived  the  generations  of  men; 
furnished,  from  the  Low  Countries,  the  demand  of  all  Northern  Europe, 
including  England,  with  abundant  beauty  of  decoration  for  domestic  use; 


GERMANY.  215 


had  inestimable  influence  in  the  education  of  the  entire  German  people  ; 
blazed  out  in  the  splendor  of  the  invention  of  true  porcelain  at  Dresden ; 
and  shines  to-day  in  the  magnificent  products  of  hundreds  of  German  and 
English  factories,  the  legitimate  descendants  of  the  Nuremberg  pottery. 

In  the  Berlin  Museum  is  a  jug  by  Veit  Hirschvogel,  of  1470,  some- 
what resembling  Italian  majolica,  but  brighter  in  colors  and  finer  in  en- 
amel. It  has  relief  decorations  —  the  Crucifixion,  and  Faith,  Hope,  and 
Charity.  The  Dresden  Museum  has  a  jug,  green,  with  relief  subjects, 
dated  1473.  The  South  Kensington  Museum  has  a  cruche  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  with  reliefs  of  Adam  and  Eve,  enamelled  with  blue,  yellow,  green, 
white,  and  manganese.  The  stained -glass  work  of  Yeit  Hirschvogel  is 
among  the  treasures  of  Nuremberg. 

His  son  Augustine  succeeded  him  as  a  potter,  being  also  a  painter 
and  engraver.  He  was  born  in  1488,  and  lived  till  1560.  He  went  to 
Italy,  married  in  Venice,  and  returning  to  Nuremberg,  brought  with  him 
probably  some  of  the  ancient  classical  forms  which  he  reproduced  in  great 
perfection.  His  works  were  ornamented  in  reliefs,  modelled  by  hand,  and 
finely  enamelled. 

The  great  pottery  stoves  in  use  in  Germany,  made  of  tiles,  afforded  op- 
portunity for  some  of  the  best  displays  of  the  art  of  Hirschvogel  and  other 
German  potters.  In  the  chateau  of  Salzburg  is  preserved  a  superb  spec- 
imen of  the  old  German  stove  which  is  much  admired,  dating  probably 
from  the  fifteenth  century.  We  have  heard  the  story  told  there  which 
we  find  in  all  the  books,  that  at  some  time  some  one  from  England  offered 
an  enormous  price  for  it,  the  French  version  placing  it  at  thirty  thousand 
francs,  and  the  Germans  making  it  considerably  larger. 

Some  of  these  stove  tiles,  which  are  often  twenty -seven  inches  by 
twenty-five,  are  decorated  with  admirable  reliefs  of  Scripture  scenes  and 
other  subjects.  They  are  usually  enamelled  in  dark  green,  occasionally 
mingled  with  yellow  or  brown.  Three  in  our  collection,  rescued  from  the 
wreck  of  an  ancient  stove  in  Nuremberg,  have  relief  subjects,  surrounded 
by  frames  of  foliage  and  cherubs.  On  one  is  St.  Mark  (111.  134) ;  on  an- 
other, Spring,  represented  by  a  boy  with  fruit  and  flowers ;  on  the  third, 
Mercury.  In  the  Sevres  Museum  are  two  slabs  of  brilliant  enamel  colors 
on  which  are  relief  figures  in  white.     One  figure  has  the  hair  gilded. 

Veit  Hirschvogel,  the  younger,  was  also  a  potter.  lie  was  born  1471, 
died  1553. 

The  art  thus  founded,  or,  rather,  brought  to  perfection  from  previous 
ruder  work  in  Nuremberg,  continued  in  the  hands  of  various  potters  there 
down  to  recent  times;  but  the  works  of  the  different  makers  of  faience 


216  MOD  Eli  N  POTTERY. 


are  only  distinguishable  when  marked.  George  Leibolt  is  named  as  a 
potter  and  modeller  about  1050,  making  unglazed  wares,  which  he  signed 
(i  L,  and  with  the  same  letters  in  monogram. 

Abraham  llelmhaek  is  said  to  have  been  a  painter  of  glass  and  pottery 
celebrated  for  his  red  colors,  who  died  in  1721. 

In  1712,  a  factory  was  founded  at  Nuremberg  by  Christoph  Marx 
and  Johann  Conrad  Romeli.  (I.  Solomon  Kees  succeeded  Marx  in  1731. 
George  Frederick  Kordenbnsch  (born  1731,  died  1802)  was  afterward  a 
proprietor,  and  Andreas  Kordenbusch  was  a  painter  of  faience.  Johann 
Tobias  Eglert  was  a  potter  in  1791,  succeeded  by  Johann  Ileinrich  Strunz, 
the  last  of  the  Nuremberg  potters. 

A  bell  in  the  Sevres  Museum,  decorated  in  blue  camaieu,  has  the  name 
of  Stroebei,  painter,  and  Christoph  Marx,  Johann  Jacob  Meyer,  des  II. 
Reich.  Stadt.  JVurnberg,  1724.  Other  artists'  signatures  are  G.  F.  G/'<  h<  r, 
Gl/u&r,  Ta/uber,  and  JPossinger. 

Some  fifty  years  ago  C.  W.  Fleischmann  established  at  Nuremberg  a 
factory  for  making  all  kinds  of  objects  in  papier-mache,  and  produced 
some  in  terra-cotta  and  in  enamelled  ware,  reproductions  chiefly  of  old 
works.  This  factory  continues  now.  The  mark  is  circular  —  Fleisch- 
mann's  Fabrik,  Nurnberg. 

Baireuth  was  a  seat  of  old  potteries.  In  the  sixteenth  century  it 
began  to  produce  faience.  The  pieces  are  well  made,  the  pottery  light, 
and  the  decoration  chiefly  in  blue.  The  museum  at  Sevres  has  a  speci- 
men signed  Ba/yreuihe,  and  several  marks  are  attributed  to  this  fabric. 

Villingen,  in  the  Black  Forest,  is  famous  because  here,  in  the  early 
part  of  the  sixteenth  century,  lh^ed  and  worked  Hans  Kraut,  who  had  no 
superior  as  a  ceramic  artist.  His  great  work  was  a  tomb  in  the  Church 
of  the  Knights  of  St.  John  at  Villingen,  erected  in  1536  to  the  memory 
of  "Wolfgang  de  Miismunster,  a  commander  of  the  order.  It  represented, 
in  relief  views,  the  siege  of  Rhodes,  which  had  occurred  a  few  years  pre- 
viously. This  monument  has  been  destroyed,  but  a  large  plaque  from  it 
remains,  showing  a  naval  combat,  and  the  inscription  to  the  memory  of 
the  knight. 

The  stoves  which  Hans  Kraut  produced  are  of  great  celebrity.  Hoof 
tiles  from  his  pottery  have  outlasted  the  storms  of  three  centuries,  and  are 
in  perfect  condition  and  glaze.  Before  the  old  potter  died,  in  1590,  his 
skill  in  art  had  won  him,  among  the  people,  the  reputation  of  sorcery. 
He  was  refused  burial  in  consecrated  ground;  and  his  body  was  interred 
outside  the  city,  the  grave  marked  by  a  stone  on  which  was  engraved  a 
potter's  wheel. 


GERMANY.  21' 


The  manufacture  of  pottery  has  continued  in  Villingen  down  to  mod- 
ern times. 

Steehla  has  a  pulpit  which  is  of  pottery,  enamelled  or  glazed,  it  is  not 
certain  which.  This  curious  work  includes  a  life-size  figure  of  Moses, 
who  supports  the  pulpit  with  his  right  arm,  while  the  left  hand  holds  the 
tables  of  the  law.  Above  the  door  Delilah  is  represented  cutting  the 
hair  of  Samson,  and,  below,  Samson  carries  off  the  gates  of  Gaza.  At  the 
foot  of  the  pulpit  the  four  evangelists,  in  high-relief,  are  surrounded  with 
green  foliage.  Eight  plaques  have  subjects  in  relief,  and  Latin  inscrip- 
tions referring  to  them — the  Creation,  Abraham,  the  Nativity,  the  Cruci- 
fixion, etc.  An  inscription  in  German  records  that  this  work  was  made 
by  Michael  Melchior  Tatzen,  potter  and  sculptor,  in  1565. 

In  Augsburg,  Adam  Vogt  made  stoves,  enamelled  in  black,  some  of 
which  are  extant,  bearing  his  name  and  the  date  1620.  In  excavations 
at  the  Carmelite  convent  large  numbers  of  fragments  of  figures,  knights, 
workmen,  and  religious  subjects,  in  a  variety  of  costumes,  made  of  pot- 
tery (terra-cotta),  well  modelled,  were  found,  and  are  supposed  to  be  of  the 
middle  of  the  fifteenth  century. 

At  Oberdorf,  Hans  Seltzmann  was  mayor  in  1514.  He  has  left  a 
glazed  or  enamelled  stove,  in  the  Schloss  at  Fuessen,  in  Bavaria,  on  which 
is  recorded  the  fact  that  he  made  it  in  1514. 

Stoves  and  other  works  in  faience  were  made  at  Memmingejst  in  the 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries.  The  general  wares  were  decorated  in 
blue,  with  wide  borders,  sometimes  with  family  arms.  Later  work  was  in 
polychrome  flowers  in  the  style  of  Strasbourg. 

Bunzlau,  in  Silesia,  is  celebrated  for  old  stone-wares,  and  in  more  re- 
cent times  for  coffee  and  chocolate  pots  of  fine  glaze,  white  within  and 
brown  or  mottled  without.  In  the  town -hall  is  a  gigantic  coffee-pot, 
nearly  fifteen  feet  high,  work  of  the  last  century. 

IIarburg  is  more  celebrated  for  the  exquisite  painting  on  glass  of  Jo- 
hann  Schaper,  1620-'70,  than  for  his  painting  on  faience,  although  the  lat- 
ter is  prized.  His  work  on  glass  is  in  black,  exceedingly  delicate  in  fin- 
ish, the  most  minute  details  of  landscape  and  figure  being  executed  with 
all  the  perfection  of  an  etching  on  copper.  His  faience  mugs  are  painted 
in  somewhat  similar  style,  usually  in  brown  on  the  white  enamel,  the 
lights  scratched  in. 

At  Sciiaffiiausex  stoves  of  great  beauty  were  made  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  some  of  which  were  decorated  with  reliefs  by,  or  from  the  de- 
signs of,  Tobias  Stimmer  (born  1534),  a  well-known  wood-engraver,  whose 
wood -cuts  of  Bible  and  other  subjects  abound  in  books  of  his  period. 


218  MODERN  POTTERY. 


Other  works  in  faience  were  made  here  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries,  which  are  odd  and  sometimes  beautiful.  These  have  commonly 
dark-chocolate,  almost  black,  enamelled  grounds,  on  which  paintings,  sub- 
jects, flowers,  etc.,  are  executed  in  bright  but  thick  colors,  and  sometimes 
inscriptions  in  patois.  In  the  museum  at  Sigmaringen  is  a  large  plate 
representing  a  scene  in  the  Passion,  signed  Gerrit  Evers  Schaphuysen, 
Jf!,.*5.     On  another,  in  the  same  museum,  is  this  rhyme: 

Eenen  Waegen  met  paerden 
1st  eyn  costelyk  Dink  op  arden 
Maer  better  een  wrouw  vol  vit  moet 
Dat  wat  de  man  seget  dat  doet. 

This  is  signed  Pavlus  IlammelA'erz,  and  dated  1743. 

Gennep. — German  Luxembourg  produced  gigantic  dishes  in  pottery, 
with  stanniferous  enamel,  decorated  in  colors — yellow,  reddish  brown,  and 
green.  M.  Schwaab  at  the  Hague  has  four  of  these,  twenty-four  inches  in 
diameter,  the  designs  and  ornaments  in  champ-leve  style  in  engobe.  One, 
representing  the  sacrifice  of  Abraham,  is  dated  1712 ;  another,  with  the 
Holy  Family,  has  the  name  Antonius  Bernardus  von  Vehlen,  1770,  24 
August,  Gennep.  In  the  Nadar  collection  (sold  1866)  was  one  decorated 
with  a  comic  subject,  and  the  name  Albert  Murs,  1721.  In  the  museum 
at  Sigmaringen  is  one  with  the  name  Peter  Menten.  1738.  In  our  col- 
lection  are  two — one  twenty-six  inches  in  diameter,  the  other  twenty-two. 
The  larger,  dated  Ano  1713,  has  a  representation  of  the  Crucifixion,  with 
the  instruments  of  the  Passion,  and  large  flowers.  On  the  other,  a  full- 
length  figure  of  St.  Joseph,  holding  the  infant  Jesus,  stands  in  an  arched 
frame,  above  which  is  the  crowned  eagle  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire. 
( )n  the  border  is  a  wreath  of  scrolls  and  flowers.  Under  the  figure  is 
Johannes  Mv/rs  Johanno  Murs.     I.  IT.  S.     S.  Joseph.     Anno  1752. 

Dishes  of  this  kind  were  frequently  made  in  the  German  potteries 
as  presents  on  the  occurrence  of  marriages,  births,  or  other  family  inci- 
dents, and  the  names  on  them  are  not  likely  to  be  those  of  makers  of 
the  ware. 

Matthias  Rosa  in  Anspach  is  the  signature  on  a  table  service,  deco- 
rated in  blue,  in  the  Rouen  style. 

At  Ceeussen  fine  pottery  of  various  kinds,  and  especially  stone-ware.-, 
were  made  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries.  Mr.  Chaffers 
cautions  purchasers  against  apostle  mugs  and  other  articles,  originally  mi- 
colored,  but  painted  in  oil-colors  by  dealers,  for  fraudulent  purposes. 

At  Schreitzheim,  in  Wiirtemberg,  fine  wares  were  made  by  genera- 
tions of  the  Wintergurst  family,  from  1620  to  this  century.      Dishes  in 


G  Eli  MA  NY.  219 


the  forms  of  animals,  vegetables,  and  other  eatables  are  characteristic,  bnt 
these  were  also  made  at  Delft  and  other  places.  The  marks  of  this  fac- 
tory are  uncertain.  An  S,  with  a  dot  in  the  upper  curve,  has  been  as- 
signed to  it;  more  doubtful,  a  B,  and  a  mark  including  the  stag's  horns, 
fleur-de-lis,  and  crossed  batons,  which  may  be  of  this  or  some  other  Wiir- 
temberg  pottery. 

A  cnp  and  saucer  of  glazed  brown  ware,  ornamented  with  silvered  re- 
lief, is  signed  G.  Manjack  fecit  Pkoskau,  and  dated  1817. 

At  Goggingen,  Bavaria,  about  1750,  a  potter  began  to  make  enamel- 
led wares,  decorated  chiefly  in  blue,  with  flowers,  arabesques,  and  figures. 
The  mark  is  the  name  in  full,  the  initials  of  an  artist,  H.  S.,  appearing  on 
a  specimen. 

At  IIibertsberg,  Saxony,  Count  Marcolini,  the  Dresden  director,  es- 
tablished in  1781  a  manufacture  of  salt-glazed  pottery,  like  the  English, 
and  also  copied  Wedgwood's  ware. 

A  pottery  at  Sciieamberg,  Wiirtemberg,  reproduced  Wedgwood's 
queen's-ware  in  plain  white,  basket,  and  other  patterns,  and  also  decorated 
with  prints.     The  mark  is  the  name  impressed. 

At  IIociist,  Mayence,  pottery  was  made  in  1720  by  Geltz.  The  por- 
celain products  soon  became  important.  Its  figurines,  in  pottery  and 
pipe-clay,  are  delicious  work.  Melchior,  the  modeller,  has  never  been  sur- 
passed in  modern  times  in  the  grace  and  perfection  of  his  figurines.  Va- 
rious objects,  frames,  horns,  birds,  medallions,  etc.,  were  produced,  all  of 
the  most  admirable  character.  The  mark  was  the  wheel  of  the  arms  of 
Mayence,  accompanied  sometimes  by  the  initials  of  artists.  Zeschinger 
occasionally  signed  at  full  length.  The  factory  was  broken  up  by  the 
French,  and  ceased  in  1791.  The  moulds  passed  into  the  hands  of  Dahl, 
who  at  a  later  period  revived  the  work,  and  signed  with  the  letter  D 
under  the  wheel. 

Meissen. — See  the  history  of  the  Royal  Saxon  porcelain  works  under 
Dresden,  of  which  the  flrst  products  in  brown  and  red  ware,  by  Bottcher, 
were  pottery. 

Li'dwigsi'.urg,  otherwise  Kronenbttrg.  —  A  mark  of  this  factory  on 
porcelain  is  two  interlaced  letters  C  under  a  crown.  The  crown  is  some- 
times omitted,  and  in  that  case  the  mark  is  precisely  that  of  Count  Cus- 
tine's  fabric  at  Niderviller  We  believe  that  considerable  faience  thus 
marked  should  be  restored  to  Ludwigsburg.  M.  Jacquemart  describes  a 
piece,,  violet-marbled  ground  with  a  medallion,  the  eagle  of  Germany,  the 
crossed  Cs,  and  date  1720,  which  was  before  the  time  of  Custine. 

At  Arnstadt,  Gotha,  pottery  was  made  about  1750.     F.  G.  Fiegel  was 


220  MODERN  POTTERY. 


a  decorator  in  L 775,  his  name  appearing  on  a  jug.  A  mark,  two  pipes 
crossed  with  three  dots,  lias  been  attributed  to  this  factory  by  Marryat. 

Marburg  had  an  ancient  pottery  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  work 
has  been  continued  to  modern  times. 

A  porcelain  factory  at  Frankenthal,  founded  b}7-  Paul  Hannong  when 
compelled  to  leave  Strasbourg  in  1754,  made  faience  also.  His  son,  Jo- 
seph Adam,  succeeded  him  in  1759.  In  1761  the  crown  took  the  works. 
The  Hannong  marks  of  Strasbourg  ware  were  used  here  on  pottery. 

At  Teinitz,  in  Bohemia,  well-decorated  faience  was  made  by  Welby 
about  1800,  who  signed  his  name  in  a  wreath. 

At  Stralsund,  Pomerania,  from  1738  to  1788,  very  beautiful  faience 
was  made  by  a  potter  named  Giese,  with  colored  relief  ornaments,  and 
good  paintings  of  flowers. 

At  Wurzburg,  in  1726,  two  persons  made  in  unglazed  pottery  an  im- 
mense number  of  imitations  of  shells,  vegetables,  and  animals,  even  -bees 
and  flies,  so  admirably  done  as  to  deceive  some  of  the  learned.  The  fraud 
was  aided  by  their  ingenuity  in  burying  them,  where  they  caused  them  to 
be  discovered  by  Louis  Hueber,  who  regarded  them  as  rare  fossils,  and 
published  an  account  of  them  at  Wurzburg  in  1726,  with  twenty -two 
pages  of  engravings  of  one  hundred  and  eleven  specimens. 

At  Ulm,  Wiirtemberg,  Rummel,  a  potter  in  1780-1800,  made  statu- 
ettes representing  the  inhabitants  of  all  conditions  in  proper  costume. 
They  are  esteemed  as  artistic  works.  Many  which  were  portraits  from 
life  are  possessed  by  families. 


VII.-SWITZERLAND. 

In  Switzerland,  as  in  Germany,  much  of  the  oldest  enamelled  pottery  is 
in  stoves.  The  indications  are  that  the  art  was  derived  from  Germany, 
and  possibly  at  first  practised  by  German  potters.  Fragments  of  Swiss 
stoves  were  found  in  the  ruins  of  the  castle  of  Sogren,  destroyed  in  1499. 
Stove  tiles  in  the  Library  collection  at  Zurich  seem  to  be  of  the  thirteenth 
or  fourteenth  century.  These  were  found  in  excavations  in  the  city.  M. 
Demmin  says  Caspar  Meyer  was  a  potter  at  Zurich,  born  1522,  died  1593 ; 
father  of  the  painter  and  engraver  Dietrich  Meyer,  whose  portraits  of  il- 
lustrious Switzers  are  well  known.  M.  Demmin  has  a  specimen  which  he 
attributes  to  him,  a  dish  on  a  foot,  enamelled  and  painted  in  polychrome; 
the  subject,  Joseph  sold  by  his  brothers,  the  figures  in  Swiss  costumes,  giv 
ing  a  droll  aspect  to  the  scene.  The  piece  is  dated  1592,  and  signed  W. 
At  WintebthuEj  from  an  early  time  stoves  were  made  of  the  best  art 


S  W1TZEELAND.— BELGIUM. 


221 


character.  Mr.  Lubke,  who  has  published  a  treatise  on  these  stoves,  de- 
scribes a  n in nber  of  them,  and  gives  the  signatures  of  makers  found  on 
them.     These  are : 


II.  E.  A.  M.  I.  T.  1647. 

Hans  Heinrich  Graaf  zu  Winterthur,  1668. 

A  monogram  of  H  E,  supposed  to  be  Elias  Eln 

hard*. 
L.  P.,  1620. 

1636.     D.  P.  (probably  David  Pfau). 
Hans  Heinrich  Pfau. 
H.  B.(HansBrenn\vald[?]) 


1655,  H.H.  A. 

David  Pfau  and  Abraham  Pfau  on  one  stove. 

H.  P. 

Ottmar  Vogler  Haffner  in  Elgg,  1*726. 

D.  S.  (David  Sulzer). 

Hans  Jacob  Da  . .  ker  Hafner  Ao,  1724. 

Johannes  Reiner,  Maler,  1729. 

Hoffman  pinxit  1757. 


The  Pfau  family  were  extensive  workers,  their  names  appearing  on 
many  stoves.  The  relief  subjects  in  these  tiles  are  largely  taken  from  the 
engravings  in  the  emblem  books,  so  popular  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
and  also  from  the  engravings  of  Tobias  Stimmer,  Dietrich  Meyer,  and  his 
son  Conrad. 

The  ancient  records  of  Winterthur  preserve  a  long  catalogue  of  pot- 
ters, from  16-H  down  to  1758,  including  many  names  not  found  on  ex- 
tant work.  The  last  of  the  Pfau  family,  David  Pfau,  died  in  1850.  Other 
works  in  pottery  came  from  these  various  makers,  but  are  probably  classi- 
fied with  the  products  of  other  countries. 

At  Freiburg,  Neuchatel,  Luzerne,  Basle,  Lausanne,  and  elsewhere  in 
Switzerland,  stoves  were  made,  and  doubtless  other  works  in  pottery. 


VIII.-BELG-IUM. 

In  1690  there  was  a  fabric  of  pottery  at  Tournay  which  was  regarded 
as  important.  Nothing  is  now  known  of  its  products.  Before  1711  it  is 
supposed  that  Pierre  Joseph  Fauquez  had  a  pottery  here,  which  he  left  on 
his  death  that  year  to  his  son,  Pierre  Francois  Joseph.  After  the  peace 
of  Aix-la-Chapelle  the  works  passed  into  the  hands  of  one  Peterynck. 
The  products  are  not  distinguished  from  those  of  Delft. 

At  Luxembourg  the  brothers  Boch  established  a  factory  in  1767,  which 
has  continued  to  the  present  time.  Its  work,  in  various  kinds  of  faience, 
as  well  as  porcelain,  has  been  of  the  best  class. 

At  Tervueren,  near  Brussels,  works  were  commenced  about  1720.  A 
vase,  with  flowers  in  relief  and  the  arms  of  Charles  of  Lorraine,  Governor 
of  the  Netherlands  and  protector  of  this  factory,  has  a  mark,  C  C  C,  under 
which  are  the  letters  C.  P. 


222  MODERN  POTTERY. 


IX.-HOLLAND. 

Dei.it,  the  town  in  Holland  which  has  given  to  the  English  language 
the  word  <l<lfU  synonymous  with  domestic  pottery,  as  china  is  synony- 
mous with  porcelain,  was  for  long  time  the  most  important  seat  of  pot- 
teries in  Europe.  From  a  remote  period  it  is  probable  that  the  excellence 
of  the  clay  had  made  this  a  place  for  the  manufacture  of  earthenwares. 
When  the  Dutch  East  India  Company  brought  Chinese  porcelains  into 
Europe,  the  first  great  impulse  was  given  to  the  potter's  art.  Men  began 
ti»  admire  the  newly  imported  wares,  and  to  accept  them  as  substitutes  for 
the  old  peAvter  and  wooden  dishes  from  which  they  had  eaten.  The  first 
porcelains  brought  to  Europe  were  the  blue  and  white.  Pontanus,  in  his 
"  History  of  Amsterdam  "  (1611),  tells  us  that  in  the  importations  to  Am- 
sterdam no  other  color  appeared  on  porcelain,  and  he  seems  to  have  sup- 
posed no  other  was  produced  in  China.  The  Delft  potters,  aroused  by 
the  new  demand  for  household  pottery  in  Chinese  style,  at  once  began 
to  produce  imitations  of  it,  in  their  best  styles — styles  which  rapidly  im- 
proved until  without  exaggeration  they  could  claim  to  make  wares  which 
in  lightness,  enamel,  and  beauty — in  fact,  in  all  external  respects — equalled 
the  imported  porcelain,  and  was  so  cheap  as  to  be  within  the  reach  of 
moderate  purses. 

All  kinds  of  Oriental  wares  which  came  to  Holland  were  imitated,  and 
when,  later,  polychrome  decorations  were  brought  out,  these  were  copied 
and  imitated  with  great  fidelity.  Coarser  and  more  common  wares  were 
made,  but  the  enamel  was  equally  good,  and  the  decorations,  if  less  care- 
ful, were  }Tet  in  good  color  and  effective.  Every  form  of  faience  was 
produced.  Bottles  in  innumerable  shapes,  vases,  services  of  table  ware, 
plaques  for  decoration,  tiles  for  chimney-pieces,  even  violins  and  other 
strange  products  in  pottery,  were  made.  The  glaze  was  in  general  of  a 
bluish  tint,  and  sand  was  mixed  with  the  clay  to  give  strength  and  hard- 
ness to  thin  articles.  The  Delft  wares  went  into  commerce,  and  were 
sent  not  only  through  Europe,  but  to  the  East  and  West  Indies.  Before 
the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  thirty  distinct  potteries  were  at  work 
in  Delft.     Potters  went  from  here  to  England  and  taught  the  art. 

Services  were  made  in  the  forms  of  animals  and  vegetables  with  great 
skill.  It  was  a  favorite  custom  with  wealthy  Germans  to  have  a  room 
expressly  set  apart  for  the  show  of  faience.  This  room  represented  both 
kitchen  and  dining-hall;  a  tile  stove,  walls  covered  with  tiles,  shelves  full 
of  dishes,  a  table  set  out  for  dinner  with  a  service  of  every  possible  article. 


HOLLAND. 


223 


For  such  rooms  these  delft  services,  with  dishes  in  the  forms  of  their  con- 
tents before  cooking,  were  well  calculated. 

When  tea  and  coffee  came  to  be  used  in  Europe  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  tea  and  coffee  pots,  and  cups  and  saucers  such  as 
we  now  use,  were  for  the  first  time  made.  Whether  the  teapot  is  a  Euro- 
pean invention  of  that  period,  for  "drawing  tea"  in  the  European  fashion, 
or  had  been  made  before  that  in  China,  does  not  appear.  Teapots  of  Eu- 
ropean fabric,  said  to  be  as  old  as  1620,  are  of  course  not  so  old. 

Delft  wares  in  the  shape  of  fruits,  fish,  etc.,  are  known  with  dates  as 
early  as  1540.  Inscriptions  are  known  on  many  specimens,  one  dated 
1547.  Eminent  artists  decorated  Delft  pottery.  Ter  Ilimpelen  painted 
fairs  and  marine  subjects,  about  1650.  Peit  Viseer  was  noted  for  colors, 
1750.  Yan  Dommelaar,  15S0,  painted  Chinese  landscapes,  dragons,  but- 
terflies, etc.,  in  gold,  red,  and  yellow.  Ter  Fehn,  1590,  was  a  modeller, 
producing  statuettes.  Jan  Asselyn  painted  landscapes,  generally  in  blue, 
about  1640.  Abraham  Verboom, 
1680,  painted  landscapes.  Jan 
Steen,  1650,  painted  figures,  a  plaque 
being  known  with  his  portrait.  Jan 
Van  der  Meer,  1632,  was  also  a  paint- 
er of  Delft  wares. 

The  story  is  told  that  a  Delft 
manufacturer  had  four  daughters, 
about  to  marry  four  ceramic  paint- 
ers on  the  same  day.  His  workmen 
made  four  violins  of  pottery,  and  at 
the  marriage  feast,  the  artists  and 
workmen  of  Delft  being  assembled, 
the  four  grooms  played  on  the  four 
violins,  while  others  played  on  va- 
rious instruments  made  of  the  same  ware.  These  four  violins  were  pre- 
served in  the  families.  Whether  this  be  or  be  not  true,  four  such  violins 
are  now  known  in  collections  in  Europe.  Champfleury  (an  author,  and  a 
collector  of  ceramic  art)  has  written  a  story,  "  Le  Violon  de  Faience." 

In  a  wine-shop  in  the  village  of  Lekkerkerk  is  one  of  the  most  cele- 
brated works  of  Delft,  a  painting  of  a  famous  giant  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury on  pottery,  eight  feet  high. 

America  abounds  in  specimens  of  Delft,  many  of  quite  early  times. 
Our  Dutch  ancestors  in  New  York,  on  Long  Island,  and  on  the  banks  of 
the  Hudson,  ornamented  their  chimneys  in  the  seventeenth  century  with 


136.  Delft  Plate.     Blue  decoration.      (T.-P.  Coll.) 


224:  MODERN  POTTERY. 

Delft  tiles,  on  which  usually  Scripture  subjects  were  painted  with  more 
or  less  skill.  Many  of  these  old  fireplaces  remain  in  position,  but  many 
more  were  broken  up  when  the  old  houses  were  removed  to  make  way 
for  modern  structures.  English  potters  afterward  produced  tiles  in  imi- 
tation of  the  Delft  ware,  and  numerous  old  houses  in  this  country,  espe- 
cially in  New  England,  were  decorated  with  these.  It  is  generally  im- 
possible to  distinguish  the  English  from  the  Dutch. 

The  French  factories  at  Rouen  made  wares  in  close  imitation  of  Delft, 
and  Delft  in  turn  imitated  the  Rouen,  so  that  many  specimens  exist 
which  may  with  equal  probability  be  assigned  to  either  of  these  factories, 
or  for  the  same  reason  to  Belgian  and  Flandrian  factories,  or  even  to  the 
English  potters,  who  produced  table  and  other  wares  precisely  resembling 
the  Delft.  Such  specimens  the  judicious  collector  will  not  trouble  him- 
self to  assign  to  any  one  factory,  but  regard  as  illustrations  of  styles  of 
art  which  were  popular  and  common  to  the  several  localities  in  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries. 

The  potters  of  Delft  were  accustomed  to  use  names,  and  probably 
sign-boards  or  emblems,  distinguishing  their  potteries.  At  the  Hotel  de 
Ville  these  names,  and  designations  wrere  registered,  together  with  the 
marks  used  by  the  potters  on  their  wares.  No  records  exist  prior  to 
1628.  M.  Demmin  has  given  an  extensive  list  of  marks  found  at  the 
City  Hall,  most  of  which  are  from  a  record  of  1761.  In  some  cases  the 
distinctive  sign  appears  on  the  pottery.  Thus,  Dirk  Van  der  Does  as- 
sumed the  Rose ;  and  a  rose  is  sometimes  on  his  work,  with  his  initials. 
Justus  Brouwer,  an  extensive  manufacturer,  designated  his  pottery  as 
"the  porcelain  hatchet,"  and  an  axe  or  hatchet  marks  its  products.  The 
various  marks  which  are  known,  as  well  as  those  of  a  large  number  of 
unknown  manufacturers,  will  be  found  in  their  place  in  the  accompany- 
ing Table  of  Marks. 

Wares  of  a  heavy  pottery,  usually  decorated  in  blue,  sometimes  in 
other  colors,  were  made  at  Amsterdam  from  1780  to  1785,  under  the  man- 
agement of  a  man  named  Hartog,  who  was  also  known  as  Ilartog  Van 
Laun,  and  his  associate,  named  Brandeis. 

At  Overtoom,  in  1754,  a  factory  belonging  to  Van  Ilaeren  and  Van 
Palland  made  good  enamelled  wares,  table  services,  vases,  groups,  birds, 
and  other  pieces.  It  ceased  in  1764.  Specimens  are  rare.  No  mark  is 
known.  The  materials  were  bought  and  transferred  to  Weesp,  where 
they  were  used  in  founding  a  porcelain  factory. 

At  Houda,  G-aberil  Vengobechea  made  faience  plates,  coarsely  painted, 
signed  with  his  name  in  full. 


SWEDEN.— DENMARK.  225 


X.-SWEDEN. 

The  manufacture  of  faience  was  not  introduced  into  Sweden  till  the 
eighteenth  century.  At  Kunersberg,  Helsingburg,  Gothenburg,  and  per- 
haps other  localities,  potteries  have  existed ;  but  we  know  little  of  any  ex- 
cept the  two  principal  factories,  at  or  near  Stockholm,  of  Rorstrand  and 
Marieburg. 

At  Rorstrand  the  manufacture  was  established  about  1727  by  a  com- 
pany. The  early  fabrics  were  in  the  styles  of  Delft,  or  with  reliefs  and 
tlowers,  in  violet,  yellow,  and  other  colors.  Rorstrand  is  a  suburb  of 
Stockholm,  and  some  pieces  are  marked  with  the  name  of  that  city. 

In  1750  the  Marieberg  factory  was  founded,  nominally  by  Count  Carl 
Scheffer,  but  doubtless  by  the  Queen  Louisa  Ulrika,  possibly  moved  by 
the  prevailing  royal  taste  of  the  times,  especially  that  of  her  brother. 
Frederick  of  Prussia,  who  robbed  Dresden  to  enrich  the  Berlin  factory. 
Both  pottery  and  porcelain  were  made,  and  the  work  was  often  of  high 
class.  The  faience  was  painted  by  good  artists.  The  jugs,  teapots,  and 
other  objects  were  ornamented  with  rustic  or  twig  handles  and  flowers  in 
relief.  The  grounds  were  sometimes  of  a  nankin  color.  In  1759,  Dr. 
Ehrenreich  became  proprietor,  and  continued  the  works  till  1780,  when 
they  were  closed. 

At  Gustafsberg,  near  Gothenburg,  about  1820,  Godenius,  a  potter,  es- 
tablished works  and  made  pottery  services,  decorated  in  blue  and  gold. 
He  also  produced  very  beautiful  Parian  wares.  The  mark  is  Gustafs- 
berg, with  an  anchor,  and  is  printed  on  Parian  ware  in  a  scroll  pattern. 

XL-DENMARK. 

Pottery  was  made  at  Copenhagen  in  the  early  part  of  the  last  cen- 
tury, but  the  history  of  the  factory  is  not  known.  It  is  probable  that  the 
porcelain  factory  also  produced  faience. 

Kiel. — The  potteries  of  Kiel  are  celebrated  for  their  beauty.  Fine 
paste,  delicate  moulding,  and  excellent  painting  characterize  them.  Sub- 
ject paintings  are  well  executed,  with  a  finish  that  gives  them  a  decided 
charm.  On  a  large  bowl  in  mitre  form,  painted  with  two  subjects,  of  a 
party  drinking  from  a  bowl  of  the  same  form,  the  lid  decorated  with 
lemons  and  fruit,  is  a  signature  of  the  director,  BuchwaM,  and  the  artist, 
Abr.  Leihamer.  Specimens  are  described,  painted  in  bright  green,  with 
touches  of  black  and  of  gold. 

15 


226  MODERN  POTTERY, 


XII.-RUSSIA. 

We  may  look  with,  interest  to  future  investigations  into  the  history 
of  the  potteries  of  Russia.  At  present  little  more  is  known  than  the  fact 
that  stoves  made  of  enamelled  tiles  abound  in  Russia,  and  are  of  early 
date,  and  that  ancient  tiles  without  glaze,  having  ornaments  in  relief,  are 
preserved  in  a  museum  at  Moscow.  Many  of  the  old  churches  of  Moscow 
have,  in  their  external  architecture,  painted  bricks,  glazed  or  enamelled 
green  and  yellow,  which  date  probably  from  the  seventeenth  century. 
About  1700,  Peter  the  Great  brought  Delft  potters  to  Russia ;  but  al- 
though they  doubtless  made  stoves  and  other  wares,  the  art  does  not  seem 
to  have  prospered  to  any  great  extent.  Beausobre,  an  author  cited  by  M. 
Demmin,  states,  in  1773,  that  faience  was  made  in  good  taste  at  St.  Peters- 
burg at  that  time,  and  also  mentions  a  pottery  at  Revel.  An  English 
writer,  also  cited  by  M.  Demmin,  in  1779  describes  a  great  number  of 
"china"  pharmacy  pots  in  a  drug-shop  at  Moscow,  which  he  had  seen, 
and  which  were  enamelled  with  the  arms  of  the  czar,  lie  probably  used 
the  word  "  china  "  carelessly,  and  these  may  have  been  the  work  of  the 
Delft  potters  of  Peter  the  Great. 

In  Tooke's  "View  of  the  Russian  Empire"  (London,  1799),  we  are 
told  that  black  earthenware  pans  were  common  in  Russia,  but  glazed 
wares  rare.  Pottery  was  then  made  at  Constantinova,  Arat,  and  Vas- 
sillikva. 

Cream-colored  wares  and  other  potteries  have  been  made  at  and  near 
Kiev. 


XIII.-G-ERMAN   G-RES  CERAME. 

Stone-wares  form  one  of  the  most  extensive  departments  of  ceramic 
art,  especially  in  table  wares  for  ordinary  use. 

The  stone -wares  of  Germany  are  of  peculiar  interest  from  their  an- 
tiquity and  beauty.  A  large  number  of  the  factories  already  mentioned 
as  producers  of  faience  also  made  stone-wares  of  the  two  classes,  common 
and  fine.  Every  one  knows  common  stone-ware.  Gray  or  brown  jugs, 
drinking-mugs,  crocks,  pitchers,  and  other  coarse  potteries  used  for  ordinary 
domestic  purposes,  are  the  most  familiar  illustrations.  But  common  stone- 
ware, if  made  by  the  hands  of  an  artist,  rises  into  the  realms  of  beauty, 
and  may  rival  works  in  more  costly  material.  Fine  stone-ware  differs 
from  the  common  only  in  the  superior  composition,  quality,  and  fineness 


GERMAN  GEES   CtiliJME. 


•2'27 


of  the  paste  of  which  it  is  formed.  In  either  case  it  is  made  of  clay  and 
sand,  baked  densely,  glazed  usually  with  salt,  stands  fire,  and  even  strikes 
tire  on  steel. 

The  name  Gres  de  Flcmdres,  formerly  applied  to  white  stone-wares, 
is  erroneous.  None  was  made  in 
Flanders.  A  great  deal  was  made 
at  Cologne,  Coblentz,  Neuwied,  and 
elsewhere  on  the  Rhine.  Stone- 
wares in  general  were  made  at  these 
places,  and  also  at  Batisbon,  Bai- 
reuth,  Grenzhausen,  Kreussen,  Bunz- 
lau — in  short,  throughout  Germany 
and  in  Holland.  The  forms  were 
many — jugs,  mugs,  and  dishes  in  va- 
rious patterns.  The  ornamentation 
is  either  in  relief  or  engraved,  re- 
liefs of  different  merit  and  charac- 
ter. A  very  common  form  was  the 
jug  which,  from  the  bearded  head  of 
a  man  on  the  neck  opposite  to  the 
handle,  is  called  the  Graybeard.  To 
this,  in  England,  in  the  reign  of 
James  I.,  was  given  the  name  B<1- 
larmine,  in   ridicule,  it    is    said,  of  w1'  German  Fi,,e  fto°f-™re  Jl>S-    (Hu?™t- 

'  ter  Coll.) 

Cardinal  Bellarmine ;  but  the  con- 
nection is  not  exactly  clear,  unless  possibly  the  cardinal  was  very  fat 
and  had  a  large  beard.  These  graybeards  varied  in  size.  We  have 
one  which  is  fifteen  inches  high.  This  is  the  largest  size.  They  were 
made  as  small  as  six  inches  high,  to  hold  a  pint.  The  ornamentation, 
besides  the  bearded  face,  varied  greatly.  Arms  were  often  impressed 
on  the  side.  Bows  of  medallions,  bands  with  inscriptions,  mottoes,  va- 
rious relief  decorations,  are  found.  These  were  largely  imported  into 
England.  But  the  graybeard  was  perhaps  the  least  ornamental  form  of 
the  decorated  stone-wares.  Cans  or  mugs  were  made  covered  with  or- 
namentation in  relief,  or  impressed  so  as  to  produce  relief,  in  arabesques, 
sometimes  enclosing  figures,  in  beautiful  bead  and  scroll  work;  apostle 
mugs,  a  low,  large  mug,  with  the  apostles  in  niches  surrounding  it;  flat 
circular  bottles;  jugs  in  rings,  and  in  double  rings,  one  at  right  angles 
with  the  other ;  in  short,  an  endless  variety  of  forms,  all  more  or  less 
beautifully  ornamented   on   the   surface.      Sometimes  the   surfaces  were 


228 


MODERN   TOTTERY. 


ornamented  with  colored  enamels,  producing  an  odd  but  very  effective 
result.  The  costumes  on  these,  and  the  dates  occurring  on  some,  Bhow 
that  they  were  chiefly  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
Anions:  the  most  beautiful  are  those  of  fine  stone- 
ware,  cream-colored,  the  surfaces  covered  with  en- 
graved or  relief  work.  The  modern  reproductions 
of  the  stone-ware  of  the  seventeenth  century  are 
now  so  common  that  most  persons  are  familiar  with 
the  great  variety  of  forms,  colors,  and  decorations 
which  in  the  seventeenth  century  were  prized  by 
the  wealthy  as  well  as  by  the  poor  frequenters  of 
ale-houses  in  Germany  and  England. 

To  nothing  more  properly  than  to  these  mugs 
and  jugs  of  gres  cerame  can  be  attributed  the 
wonderful  art  education  of  the  German  popula- 
tion. In  our  own  time,  to  our  shame  be  it  spoken, 
in  America,  the  artisans  to  whom  we  apply  for 
home  decoration  are  in  vast  majority  Germans. 
There  is  no  race  of  men  who  so  much  contribute 
to  the  artistic  tastes  of  the  world  as  the  German 
For   our    ornamental   furniture,  for   our   wall-painting,  for   our 


188.    Gres  Cannette 
ryat  Coll.) 


races. 


upholstery,  for  our  decorations  of  almost  every  kind,  we  depend  largely 
on  German  workmen.  Their  ability  and  taste  are  due  to  the  fact  that 
the  German  workman  and  his  ancestors  for  generations  have  been  accus- 
tomed to  artistic  work  in  their  most  common  utensils  of  ordinary  life, 
and  in  nothing  more  than  in  their  pottery.  The  utilitarian  says  that 
beer  is  just  as  well  drunk  out  of  a  plain  mug  as  an  ornamental  mug; 
but  the  German  of  the  seventeenth  century  thought  it  pleasanter  and 
more  profitable  to  drink  his  beer  from  a  mug  whereon  there  were  les- 
sons of  beauty  in  art,  and  the  result  has  been  that  his  descendants  are 
the  art  purveyors  of  the  world.  If  Italy  in  the  fifteenth  century  pro- 
duced works  in  majolica  which  the  wealthy  collector  of  our  day  is  will- 
ing to  possess  at  fabulous  prices,  it  must  be  remembered,  however,  that 
that  splendid  art  had  no  beneficial  effect,  produced  no  results  on  suc- 
ceeding times.  The  high  prices  paid  for  old  German  stone-ware  jugs 
are  more  justifiable,  at  least  in  this  that  they  were  the  educators,  di- 
rectly and  indirectly,  of  generations  of  men  in  the  seventeenth,  eigh- 
teenth, and  nineteenth  centuries,  and  that  to  them,  in  some  degree,  we 
owe  the  practical  union  of  beauty  and  utility  of  our  own  country  and 
period. 


GERMAN  GRfUS   CERA  ME. 


229 


If  we  could  pause  here  and  there  in  the  dry  history  of  an  art  to  dwell 
on  the  stories  which  are  connected  with  it,  we  should  swell  the  work  to 
many  volumes.  It  is  said  that  Jacqueline  of  Ilainault,  daughter  of  Wil- 
liam IV.  of  Holland,  young,  brave,  and  beautiful,  Duchess  of  Brabant 
by  marriage,  after  successive  contests  with  John  of  Bavaria,  her  husband 
of  Brabant,  and  Philip  of  Burgundy, 
when  she  had  retired,  a  prisoner,  to 
the  Castle  of  Teylingen,  in  1436, 
amused  herself  by  making  stone-ware 
mugs,  wThich  she  threw  into  the  cas- 


tle   moat,  saying   that  hereafter  they 

would  be  found  and  thought  relics  of 

antiquity.     Whatever  of  truth  there 

be  in  the  tradition,  it  is  certain  many    ^^j 

cans  or  mugs  have  been  found  in  the    ^ 

moat,  plain  stone-wTare  mugs,  without 

decoration;    but    it    is    also    true    that  139.  Apostle  Mug.     (Marryat  Coll.) 

these  were   made   in  various   parts   of  Holland,  and  that   it  was   an  old 

custom  at  feasts  to  use  such  mugs,  one  for  each  guest,  which  were  never 

used  again.     They  are,  however,  called  Jacoba-kanetjes,  and  a  treatise  on 

the  "  Vrouw  Jacob's  kanetjes"  was  jmblished  at  Arnheim  in  1757.     Even 

in  France  they  are  called  Jacqueline*  •  and  in  Flanders  they  call  by  this 

name  all  stone- ware  bottles  with  large  bulbs,  and  also  those  which  we  call 

Tobys,  if  in  form  of  a  seated  woman. 

Stone- ware  was  made  early  in  the  sixteenth  century  at  Batisbon,  where 
the  mark  of  Jerome  Hoppfer  (an  inferior  engraver  on  copper)  appears  as 
a  designer,  and  perhaps  maker,  of  moulds.  David,  Jerome,  and  Lambert 
Hoppfer  were  three  brothers,  all  artists,  none  remarkably  successful,  if 
we  are  to  judge  from  their  works  ;  and  all  alike  used  for  a  mark  between 
their  initials  a  little  hop-vine,  which  some  mistake  for  a  candle.  The 
best  work  for  future  ages  which  Jerome  did  was  on  pottery.  The  apostle 
mugs  came,  mostly,  from  Creussen.  Mention  has  been  made  of  a  com- 
mon style  of  fraud,  in  some  modern  dealers,  who  paint  in  oil-colors  and 
sell  ( Yeussen  apostle  mugs  which  were  made  in  plain  stone-ware. 

At  the  Huyvetter  sale  a  gres  cerame  jug  was  sold  for  one  hundred 
pounds.  This  was  a  rare  and  extraordinary  piece.  A  white  jug  in  the 
Bernal  sale  brought  forty -four  pounds  ten  shillings;  a  blue-and  white 
jug  thirty-seven  pounds;  other  stone-ware  specimens  of  less  importance, 
from  two  to  nineteen  pounds. 

The  modern   reproductions  of  ancient  stone-ware  which   abound,  and 


230  MODERN   POTTERY. 


the  superb  works  of  modern  factories  in  original  designs,  are  not  within 
the  scope  of  this  volume.  The  varieties  of  stone-ware  from  time  to  time 
produced  in  England  by  makers  of  pottery  and  porcelain  are  of  much 
interest.  Many  of  these  were  made  by  potters  who  went  from  the  Low 
Countries  to  England,  and  it  is  not  always  possible  to  determine  whether 
a  stone-ware  jug  is  of  English  or  Continental  fabric.  The  potteries  at 
Fulham,  making  these  wares,  began  the  history  of  artistic  work  in  Eng- 
land. The  Elers  brothers,  coming  from  the  Continent  to  Staffordshire, 
brought  with  them  the  method  of  making  the  admirable  scroll  and  other 
relief  decorations  of  the  Gres,  and  introduced  the  style  on  their  red  wares 
at  Bradwell.  These  wares  of  the  Elerses  evidently  impressed  the  mind  of 
Josiah  Wedgwood,  and,  it  is  quite  likely,  led  him  to  direct  his  attention 
almost  exclusively  to  the  production  of  relief  ornaments,  and  thus  the 
German  cans  had  illustrious  progeny  in  the  superb  works  of  Etruria. 
Nor  did  their  influence  cease  here.  The  common  classes  of  stone- ware  in 
England  were  improved  under  the  impulse  given  to  manufacture  by  the 
Elerses,  were  brought  to  great  perfection  in  Wedgwood's  day,  new  pastes 
were  from  time  to  time  invented,  and  at  length  the  stone-wares  of  Eng- 
land became  (what  they  still  remain)  the  rival  of  porcelain  in  utility  and 
beauty. 


PART    III. 

PORCELAIN 


I.-CHINA. 


Neither  tradition  nor  history  gives  any  critical  account  of  the  origin 
of  the  making  of  enamelled  pottery  or  porcelain  by  the  nations  on  the 
Pacific.  The  Chinese  authorities  state  that  pottery  was  invented  in  the 
reign  of  Hoang -ti,  who,  according  to  Chinese  chronology,  ascended  the 
throne  2698  b.c.  Ancient  Chinese  chronology  is  no  more  accurately  de- 
termined than  the  Egyptian.  This  date,  however,  is  not  far  from  what 
might  be  expected,  if,  as  is  probable,  the  first  descendants  of  Noah  who 
reached  the  Pacific  Coast  made  pottery.  It  has  always  been  among  the 
first  of  the  useful  arts,  practised  by  men  in  all  conditions  of  comparative 
civilization.  This  is  about  the  date  of  the  arrival  of  the  first  settlers  in 
Egypt. 

The  invention  of  porcelain  is  dated  by  the  Chinese  authorities  in  a  pe- 
riod extending  from  185  b.c.  to  87  a.d.  But  again  there  is  uncertainty, 
for  it  does  not  appear  that  the  Chinese  have  ever  distinguished  porcelain 
as  translucent  pottery.  On  the  contrary,  the  word  yao  in  Chinese  ap- 
plies ecpially  to  porcelain  (in  our  acceptation  of  that  word)  and  to  enam- 
elled metals,  and  possibly  to  other  articles  covered  with  enamels  fixed  by 
fire.  Hence  this  statement  of  the  date  of  the  discovery  of  porcelain  must 
be  accepted  with  doubt.  It  may  be  the  date  of  the  introduction  of  en- 
amel on  pottery.  The  earliest  "  porcelain  "  is  described  as  of  coarse  heavy 
paste,  and  may  have  been  the  same  general  class  of  ware  made  by  the  Per- 
sians. The  Chinese  had  established  extensive  commercial  relations  with 
the  Arabian  coasts  at  an  early  date.  Their  ships  crowded  the  Indian 
Ocean,  and  it  is  stated  by  one  author  that  as  many  as  four  hundred  Chi- 
nese trading  vessels  were  at  one  time  in  the  Persian  Gulf,  loaded  with  per- 
fumes, spices,  gold,  copper,  and  porcelain.  An  Arabian  manuscript  of  one 
Suleiman,  a  merchant,  describes  the  Arabian  vessels  as  trading  with  China 
in  the  ninth  century.     At  the  same  time  the  intercourse  overland  between 


232 


PORCELAIN. 


Eastern  Iran  and  Mongolian  China  was  probably  constant.  It  is  well 
known  that  at  a  comparatively  late  period  the  Chinese  derived  from  the 

Arabs  the  blue  of  cobalt, 
previously  unknown  to 
them,  and  also  the  art 
of  enamelling  on  metals. 
These  debts  to  Saracen 
art  point  to  a  possibility 
that  at  an  earlier  period 
they  had  learned  from 
the  West  how  to  make 
translucid  pottery.  They 
have  never  been  distin- 
guished as  inventors,  but 
always  as  imitators.  For 
the  present,  however,  the 
invention  of  translucid 
pottery  is  credited  to 
China. 

It  is  of  course  possi- 
ble that  the  tribes  who 
went  eastward  after  the 
Deluge  discovered  the 
art  of  enamelling  pot- 
tery. But  it  is  more 
probable  that  they  de- 
rived it  through  Central 
Asia  from  the  enamels 
of  Assyria  and  Babylo- 
nia.' No  specimens  of 
very  ancient  enamelled 
140.  Chinese  Vase,  decorated  with  lacquer  and  flowers,  in  color,    potteries    of    China    are 

(Jacquemart.)  -,  xl 

1  known,  even  among  the 

antiquarians  and  collectors  in  that  country,  who  have  for  some  centuries 
been  numerous  and  enthusiastic.  We  have  older  examples  of  Saracen 
work,  by  several  hundred  years,  than  of  Chinese.  Until,  therefore,  fur- 
ther discoveries  of  old  Chinese  art  lead  to  a  different  conclusion,  it  may 
be  regarded  as  probable  that  the  Chinese  learned  this  art  from  the  nations 
of  Central  A.sia,  to  whom  it  had  descended,  through  Assyria  and  Babylo- 
nia, from  Egypt. 


CHINA.  233 

The  enamelled  potteries  of  China  give  place  in  interest  to  the  porce- 
lains. The  porcelain  paste  in  effect  seems  to  have  largely  taken  the  place 
of  pottery  in  China,  and  has  been  used  for  some  centuries  for  all  classes  of 
ware,  common  and  line,  cheap  and  expensive.  The  pastes  vary  in  purity, 
and  are,  in  coarse  jars  and  wares  for  rough  uses,  almost  opaque,  while  in 
the  delicate  classes  they  are  like  gems  in  translucidity.  So,  too,  many  of 
the  most  gorgeous  colors  of  the  Chinese  are  placed  on  bodies  of  heavy  and 
dirty  paste.  The  massive  bricks  and  ornamental  architecture  of  the  cele- 
brated tower  of  Licouli  were  porcelain. 

The  manufacture  of  porcelain  has  been  for  several  centuries  carried  on 
in  various  districts  of  China  by  private  makers,  while  also  the  Government 
has  conducted  the  royal  factories  at  King-te-tchin.  Chinese  gentlemen 
have  long  taken  great  interest  in  the  art,  and  private  collections  are  nu- 
merous. Books  are  published  on  the  subject,  for  the  information  of  all 
who  desire  to  study  the  history. 

The  oldest  known  Chinese  work  treating  of  ceramic  art  was  first  is- 
sued in  1325,  entitled  "  Feou-liang  Ilien-tchi,"  a  description  of  the  district 
of  Feou-liang,  in  which  King-te-tchin  is  situated.  M.  Stanislas  Julien 
says  that  this  work  passed  through  twenty -one  editions.  lie  found  in 
the  Imperial  Library  at  Paris  an  edition  of  1823.  It  was  doubtless  re- 
vised and  extended  from  time  to  time,  as  quotations  from  it  refer  to  mod- 
ern European  commerce.  This  author  commences  his  history  at  a  point 
in  the  Wou-te  period  of  the  Thang  Dynasty,  about  621  a.d.,  when,  he 
states,  for  the  first  time  the  Government  directed  its  attention  and  laws 
to  this  industry. 

Another  Chinese  work  on  the  subject  is  entitled  "  Thao-Choue,"  or 
Dissertations  on  Porcelain.  It  was  written  by  Tehou-thong-tch'ouen  be- 
tween 1736  and  1795,  and  is  divided  into  six  books,  discussing  the  present 
state  of  the  art  and  the  special  products  of  various  periods. 

A  third  Chinese  work,  entitled  "King-te-tchin  Thao-lou,"  or  Porcelain 
History  of  King-te-tchin,  was  published  in  1815  by  Tching-thing-kouei. 
This  work  contains  most  of  the  important  matters  in  those  previously 
named,  and  cites  various  other  authorities  not  known  to  Europeans.  It  is 
a  methodical  account  of  porcelains,  in  chronological  order,  commencing 
with  the  vases  of  Ngeou-youei,  the  eastern  part  of  Ngeou,  in  the  third 
century  of  our  era,  and  continuing  the  critical  history  of  Chinese  products 
by  periods  down  to  the  nineteenth  century,  with  elaborate  accounts  of 
the  processes  of  manufacture.  This  work  M.  Julien  has  translated  into 
French,  and  from  it  and  its  accompanying  papers  and  notes  the  body 
of  our  present  knowledge  of  the  history  of  Chinese  ceramic  art  is  derived. 


234 


PORCELAIN. 


None  of  the  works  give  any  facts  concerning  the  origin  of  enamelled 
pottery  or  porcelain.     The  essential  to  hard-paste  porcelain  —  the  only 

kind  known  to  the  Chinese — is  the  clay  to 
which  they  gave  the  name  Kaolin,  from  the 
mountain  with  similar  name,  near  King-te- 
tchin,  where  it  abounded.  The  fact  that  this 
earth,  in  combination  with  a  peculiar  stone 
— pe-tim-tse,  felspar — under  a  great  heat  pro- 
duces a  translucent  object,  was  a  discovery 
of  unknown  date  by  an  unknown  person. 
We  have  no  specimens  of  the  earliest  Chi- 
nese work,  either  in  pottery  or  porcelain  ; 
nothing,  indeed,  which  can  be  depended 
upon  as  genuine  of  an  older  date  than  the 
fourteenth,  or  possibly  the  fifteenth,  century 
of  our  era,  except,  perhaps,  the  small  bottles 
found  in  Egypt  and  elsewhere,  to  be  here- 
after described.  Pieces  are  frequently  found 
which  bear  dates  as  early  as  the  King-te  pe- 
riod, 1004-1007;  but  no  reliance  is  placed 
on  their  genuineness. 

It  is  important,  at  the  outset  of  our  ex- 
amination, that  the  student  of  Chinese  ce- 
ramic art  be  informed  distinctly  that  during 
the  last  century,  and  down  to  its  very  close, 
the  Chinese  factories  have  reproduced  in 
perfection  the  rarest  works  of  the  old  pe- 

141.  Chinese  Vase.    Height  20  inches,    l'iods. 

Marryat.     (Fortune  Coll.)  Th(J    following    information,    which     we 

take  from  M.  Julien's  translation  of  the  work  of  Tching- thing -kouei, 
being  section  11!)  of  the  fourth  book,  is  very  clear  on  this  point : 

119.  KIIIEN-LONG-NIEN-TIIANG-YAO. 

[Porcelains  of  Thang-kong  made  in  the  period  Khien-long — 1136-95.) 

These  are  porcelains  of  the  imperial  factory,  made  under  the  direction  of 
Thang-ing,  an  officer  attached  to  the  Department  of  Interior  Affairs  (that  is,  affairs 
of  the  imperial  palace).  Thang-kong  established  himself  in  the  manufacture  in  the 
sixth  year  of  Song-tching  (1727).  At  this  time  there  was  an  adjunct  director 
named  Mien,  who  enjoyed  a  great  reputation.  At  the  commencement  of  the  reign 
of  Khien-long  (1736)  he  was  charged  with  the  control  of  bridge  tolls  in  the  district 


CHINA.  235 

of  Iloai.  In  the  eighth  year  (1743)  he  was  sent  to  Khieou-kiang  to  oversee  the 
operations  of  the  customs.  These  two  together  directed  the  porcelain  works. 
Thang-kong  knew  thoroughly  the  nature  of  earths  or  clays,  and  the  different  kinds 
of  fire.  He  introduced  great  care  in  the  choice  of  materials,  so  that  the  vases  which 
were  made  under  his  care  were  all  "d'une  finesse,  d'un  eclat  et  d'une  purete  par- 
faits."  He  knew  how,  besides,  to  imitate  all  the  most  celebrated  antique  porcelains, 
and  never  failed  to  give  them  the  same  degree  of  elegance  and  of  beauty.  He  imi- 
tated also  all  the  most  celebrated  kinds  of  enamels,  and  reproduced  them  with  rare 
skill.  Nothing  was  wanting  to  the  perfection  of  his  porcelains.  Nor  is  this  all :  he 
introduced  newly  in  the  work  a  multitude  of  ingenious  processes  ;  to  wit,  1.  (En- 
amel) violet  of  Europe;  2.  (Enamel)  blue,  called  Fa-tsing ;  3.  Vases  with  grounds  of 
burnished  silver;  4.  Black-enamelled  grounds;  5.  The  shining  black  of  Europe; 
6.  The  manner  of  painting  with  enamel,  Fa-lang-hoa-fa ;  7.  Black  grounds  with  the 
enamel  of  Europe ;  8.  White  flowers  on  a  black  ground  ;  9.  Designs  in  gold  on 
black  ground;  10.  The  sky-blue  porcelains  (bleu-de-ciel)  ;  11.  The  enamel  which 
changes  in  the  firing. 

These  vases  were  made  with  a  white  and  fat  clay.  There  were  of  them  both 
thick  and  thin,  but  all  of  a  gleaming  tone  (d'un  ton  luisant).  At  this  epoch  the 
products  of  the  imperial  manufactory  had  attained  the  greatest  perfection. 

In  addition  to  this,  Chinese  authorities  unite  in  stating  that  all  the 
more  ancient  works  were  exactly  reproduced  during  the  Ming  Dynasty 
(1308-1647).  We  know  that  the  modern  manufacturers  in  China  and 
in  Japan  reproduce  with  considerable  skill  the  works  and  the  marks  of  all 
former  periods.  The  history  of  King-te-tchin  abounds  in  descriptions 
of  the  reproductions  of  old  styles  in  every  successive  period.  It  is  quite 
plain  that  a  collection  of  Chinese  porcelain  cannot  be  satisfactorily  ar- 
ranged by  dates. 

The  collector  may  well  dismiss  from  his  mind  all  anxiety  on  this  sub- 
ject, contenting  himself  with  the  choice  of  specimens  which  illustrate  the 
variety  and  beauty  of  color  for  which  the  Chinese  porcelain  has  its  great 
renown.  To  pay  a  large  price  for  a  specimen  because  bearing  an  old 
mark,  or  guaranteed  by  the  opinion  of  an  expert  to  be  old,  is  highly  ab- 
surd, if  another  specimen,  equally  good  in  color,  without  mark  or  guaran- 
tee, can  be  purchased  at  a  cheaper  rate.  The  more  experienced  judges  of 
Oriental  porcelain  freely  acknowledge,  in  numerous  colors  and  kinds,  the 
impossibility  of  determining  periods  of  manufacture,  and  it  may  well  be 
doubted  whether  there  is  any  person  in  China,  Europe,  or  America  who. 
upon  examining  specimens  of  certain  exquisite  colors,  can  decide  whether 
they  are  of  the  Ming  Dynasty,  or  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Since,  then,  it  is  often  impossible  to  classify  Chinese  works  by  periods, 


236 


PORCELAIN. 


or  to  make  collections  illustrate  the  history  of  a  progressing  and  changing 
art  in  the  far  East,  collectors  are  left  to  divide  their  specimens  accord- 
ing to  colors  and  styles  of  decoration,  and  such  aid  as  the  marks  found  on 
them  (frequently  forged)  may  supply. 

The  oldest  Chinese  porcelain  was  probably  either  pure  white,  sea- 
green,  a  blackish  blue,  or  white  and  blue.  Decoration  in  various  shades 
of  blue  has  always  been  a  favorite  style  in  China,  as  among  the  Saracens 
and  in  Europe. 

Blue  has  always  been  the  transmission  color  in  the  art  of  enamel. 
The  favorite  Egyptian  color  was  blue.  The  few  enamelled  wares  of  the 
Greek  fabric,  learned  from  Egypt,  were  blue.  The  same  color  prevailed 
in  Assyrian,  Persian,  and  all  Saracen  decoration.  The  Spaniards  gave  the 
name  azulejo  to  all  wall  tiles  from  the  common  blue  color.  When  the 
Florentine  laboratory  invented  the  Medicean  porcelain,  it  was  decorated 
in  blue.  When  France  discovered  the  art,  blue  was  the  chief  color  used, 
and  the  king  afterward  reserved  all  other  colors  to  the  sole  use  of  the 
royal  factory.  When  hard-paste  porcelain  was  invented  at  Dresden,  blue 
was  the  decoration  color  for  years.  Was  the  color  delivered  from  nation 
to  nation  with  the  art,  in  old  times  as  in  modern  I 

Many  collectors  of  Chinese  and  Japanese  wares  confine  themselves 
exclusively  to  fabrics  decorated  in  blue.  Such  collections  are  of  great 
beauty,  and  are  apt  to  contain  specimens  of  high  antiquity.  The  first  al- 
lusion to  porcelain  in  Chinese  literature  speaks  of  it  as  green.  We  do  not 
know  precisely  what  this  color  was,  or  whether  the  word  translated  green 
means  any  shade  of  that  color  known  to  us.  It  is,  however,  supposed  that 
the  color  was  what  we  now  call  green  celadon. 

A  very  remarkable  class  of  small  porcelain  vases,  or  bottles,  found 
in  considerable  number  in  Egypt,  has  attracted 
attention  because  of  the  idea,  which  for  a  long 
time  prevailed,  that  they  were  found  in  ancient 
tombs,  and  therefore  indicated  the  great  antiq- 
uity of  porcelain  manufacture  in  China.  Eosel- 
lini  reported  the  finding  of  one  in  an  Egyptian 
tomb  whose  date  was  little  later  than  1800  B.C. 
Since  that  time  many  have  been  found  in  the 
possession  of  Arabs  in  Egypt,  who  profess  to 
have  discovered  them  in  tombs.  Several  have 
been  found  where  no  doubt  can  exist  of  their 
great  age.  Mr.  Layard  found  one  (111.146)  in  the  mound  at  Arban,  but 
in  a  position  giving  no  clue  to  its  exact  period.     General  Cesnola  found 


Chinese  Bottle  found  in 
Egypt. 


CHINA. 


237 


143. 


Chinese  Bottle  found  in 
Egypt. 


two  buried  in  the  loose  earth  while  excavating  at  Idalium,  but  not  in  a 
tomb.  We  have  three  in  our  collection,  obtained  in  Egypt  from  Arabs 
— two  at  Thebes  and  one  in  Cairo.  The  New 
York  Historical  Society  has  in  the  Abbott  col- 
lection seventeen,  obtained  by  Dr.  Abbott  at 
various  times  in  Egypt,  but  no  record  exists  of 
their  place  of  discovery.  Specimens  are  in  sev- 
eral European  collections. 

The  discoveries  by  Mr.  Layard  and  General 
Cesnola  are  evidence  of  considerable  antiquity, 
lint,  aside  from  other  considerations,  the  char- 
acter of  the  porcelain  in  some,  if  not  in  all,  of 
these  indicates  antiquity,  and  they  may  be  re- 
garded as  relics  of  that  abundant  trade  existing  between  the  Arabs  and 
the  Chinese  in  the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries. 

These  bottles  are  not  of  uniform  shape  or  style  of  decoration. 
Twelve  in  the  Abbott  collection  and  two  in  our  own  are  eacli  about  two 
inches  high,  shaped  as  shown  in  the  illustrations  (142-14:6).  The  mate- 
rial is  a  heavy  paste,  roughened  on  the  surface  with  coarse  granulations. 
Some  are  red,  others  yellow.  The  flat  sides  are  always  plain  white,  a  few 
flowers  on  one  in  red  or  black,  or  both  colors,  and  a  legend  on  the  opposite 
side  in  black  or  red.  These  vary  a  trifle  in  size.  One,  in  the  Abbott  col- 
lection, is  smaller  than  the  others,  a  flat  oval  without  handles,  pure  white, 
with  flowers  in  red,  and  no  legend. 

A  rare  form  and  description  is  that  of  one  in  our  collection,  obtained 
at  Thebes,  and  two  in  the  Abbott  collection.  The  shape  is  a  flattened  am- 
phora, with  handles  extending  from  the  neck  to 
the  body ;  the  paste  coarse,  like  the  others ;  the 
enamel  a  pale-green  celadon,  with  sprigs  of  flow- 
ers slightly  embossed  in  white — a  very  ancient 
Chinese  style.  One  in  the  Abbott  collection  is 
similar  in  size  and  shape,  the  enamel  dark  starch- 
blue,  and  another  is  of  the  same  color,  but  a  half - 
inch  smaller. 

All  these  objects  have  characteristics  of  the 
most  ancient  porcelains  described  in  the  Chi- 
nese works.  None  are  reported  as  discovered 
anywhere  except  in  countries  inhabited  by  Saracen  races.  They  have 
probably  contained  perfumes,  of  which  the  Arabs  have  always  been  ready 
purchasers. 


144. 


Chinese  Bottle  found  in 
Egypt. 


238 


PORCELAIN. 


M.  Julien  has  discussed  these  curious  specimens  with  much  erudition, 

and  abundantly  established  the  impossibility  of  their  age  being  so  great 

as  the  error  of  Rosellini  attributed  to  them.      He  describes 

the  various  styles  of  writing  used   by  the   Chinese,  and 

shows  that  the  inscriptions  are  in  a  character  which  was 

invented  by  a  eunuch  of  the  palace  under  the  Emperor 

Youen-ti  (48-33  B.C.),  and  which,  by  reason  of  its  abridged 

and  rapid  form,  came  quickly  into  general  use.     Mr.  Med- 

hiirst,  the  distinguished  English  interpreter,  long  resident 

in   China,  examined  the  inscriptions  on   some  specimens,  145.  Chinese  Bot- 

and  believed  them  extracts  from  known  authors.     One,  he      „  d    m 

Lgvpt. 
says,  is  from  a  poet  who  lived  between  713  and   <41  a.d., 

and  is  translated  "  The  radiant  moon  gleams  in  the  midst  of  the  pines ;" 
another,  from  a  poet  of  about  the  same  date,  "  The  flowers  are  opening, 
and  behold  a  new  year." 

Considering  the  very  commonplace  character  of  such  sentences,  and 
the  peculiar  form  in  which  they  appear,  in  two  or  three  Chinese  charac- 
ters, there  may  be  some  reasonable  doubt  whether  these  remarks  are  orig- 
inal with  the  poets  to  whom  they  are  attributed.  In  fact,  some  one  else 
may  have  said  the  same  things. 

It  has  been  stated  that  precisely  similar  bottles,  with  similar  legends 
in  the  same  old  character,  are  now  made  in  China.  This  may  be  correct ; 
but  we  have  been  unable  to  verify  it,  or  to  procure  from 
China  any  specimens.  The  fact  would,  however,  not  mili- 
tate against  the  theory  of  the  great  age  of  the  specimens 
found  in  excavations  by  Mr.  Layard,  General  Cesnola,  and 
others,  since  the  Chinese  have  always  reproduced  their  an- 
cient fabrics  in  such  constant  succession  that  identity  of 
form  and  decoration  has  been  well  preserved.  It  is  remark- 
able, however,  that  no  single  example  has  been  described  as 
brought  to  Europe  or  America  by  the  great  East  India  com- 
panies or  the  merchant  traders  of  the  past  two  centuries,  or 
by  travellers,  among  the  immense  variety  of  wares  which 
have  been  introduced,  and  that  specimens  are  not  abundant  in  collections. 
Mr.  Layard,  in  his  account  of  the  Nestorian  Church  at  Zerin,  said  to  be 
the  oldest  church  of  the  Nestorians,  describes  a  remarkable  collection  of  por- 
celains which  it  is  greatly  to  be  regretted  he  could  not  examine  carefully. 


1  4  (J .  Chinese 
Bottle  discov- 
ered at  Arban. 


A.mong  the  objects  which  first  attracted  my  attention  were  numerous  Chinese 
bowls  and  jars   of  elegant  form   and  richly  colored,  but  black  with  the  dust  of 


CHINA. 


239 


ages.  They  were  suspended,  like  the  other  relics,  by  cords  from  the  roof.  I  was 
assured  that  they  had  been  there  from  time  out  of  mind,  and  had  been  brought 
from  the  distant  empire  of  Cathay  by  those  early  missionaries  of  the  Chaldean 
Church  who  bore  the  tidings  of  the  Gospel  to  the  shores  of  the  Yellow  Sea.  If 
such  were  really  the  case,  some  of  them  might  date  so  far  back  as  the  sixth  or  sev- 
enth century,  when  the  Nestorian  Church  flourished  in  China  and  its  missions  were 
spread  over  the  whole  of  Central  Asia.  The  villagers  would  not,  in  the  absence  of 
their  bishop,  allow  me  to  move  any  of  these  sacred  relics.  The  sister  of  the  Patri- 
arch, they  said,  had  endeavored  to  wash  one  some  years  before,  and  it  had  been  broken. 
Hung  with  the  china  vases  was  the  strangest  collection  of  objects  that  could  well  be 
imagined.  Innumerable  bells,  of  all  forms  and  sizes,  many  probably  Chinese,  *  *  * 
porcelain  birds  and  animals,  *  *  *  all  brought  at  various  periods  by  adventurous  in- 
habitants of  the  village  who  had  wandered  into  distant  lands,  and  had  returned  to 
their  homes  with  some  evidence  of  their  travels  to  place  in  their  native  church. 

If  these  objects  are  indeed  Chinese,  and  not  Persian  porcelains  or  pot- 
tery, they  are  an  interesting  illustration  of  the  travels  of  Chinese  fabrics 
many  centuries  ago,  and  are  probably  among  the  earliest  works  of  that 
people  which  have  been  preserved  from  destruction. 

From  the  date  of  the  invention  of  porcelain  in  China,  according  to 
Chinese  authorities,  the  progress  made  in  the  art  seems  to  have  been  slow. 
Under  the  Tsin  Dynasty  (265-419 
a.d.)  the  porcelain  was  blue  in  color, 
and  was  held  in  great  esteem.  About 
583  a.d.,  potters  in  the  district  now 
including  King-te-chin  were  ordered 
to  make  porcelain  for  the  use  of  the 
emperor,  and  to  bring  it  to  the  capi- 
tal. This  command  raised  porcelain 
into  the  rank  of  the  higher  arts  in 
China.  Under  the  Soui  Dynasty 
(581-618)  we  read  of  green  porcelain 
which  was  made  to  take  the  place 
of  some  species  of  glass  which  is 
unknown,  and  the  art  now  spread 
throughout  the  empire.  The  work 
of  one  Thao-yu  is  celebrated  as  re- 
ceiving the  name  "  artificial  jade,'' 
which  we  may  conjecture  to  have 
been  in  pure  green  celadon,  which  resembles  closely  some  of  the  prized 
shades  of  jade.     The  Chinese  have  always  been  fond  of  comparing  por- 


147.  Chinese  Vase.     Dark-blue  ground,  with 
white  flowers.     (Avery  Coll.) 


240 


rone  el  a  is: 


celain  with  jade,  and  it  lias  doubtless  been  the  ambition  of  potters  to  jus- 
tify this  comparison  which  led  them  to  the  production  of  some  of  the 
most  remarkable  colors.  The  porcelains  of  Ilo-tchong-thson  (021  a.d.) 
celebrated  under  the  name  Ilo-yao,  or  porcelains  of  Ho,  were  renowned  for 
the  purity  of  their  white,  again  called  brilliant  as  jade.  M.  Julien  (who  is 
our  constant  authority)  finds  no  potter  of  distinction  from  the  seventh  to 
the  tenth  century.  The  porcelains  of  Tch'ai  (the  Emperor  Chi-tsong) 
made  from  the  year  95-1  are  celebrated,  especially  from  the  often-repeated 
story  that  when  asked  for  an  order  for  porcelain  by  a  potter,  he  replied, 
"  Let  the  porcelain  for  the  palace  use  hereafter  be  blue  as  the  sky  that  one 

sees  through  a  break  in  the  clouds  after  rain." 
Among  the  various  exquisite  shades  of  blue  on 
Chinese  porcelains,  collectors  have  differed,  and 
are  epiite  at  liberty  to  differ,  in  pointing  out  the 
special  shade  resulting  from  this  order.  The 
( 'hinese,  however,  had  a  shade  which  they  called 
Yu-kouo-thien-tsing,  "  blue  of  the  sky  after 
rain,"  which  they  used  in  obedience  to  the  com- 
mand. The  resulting  works  were,  say  the  au- 
thors, "  blue  as  the  sky,  brilliant  as  a  mirror, 
thin  as  paper,  sonorous  as  a  Khing,  polished  and 
gleaming,  and  were  distinguished  as  much  by  the 
delicacy  of  the  veins,  or  of  the  crackle,  as  by  the 
beauty  of  the  color."  In  after-times  these  speci- 
mens were  not  to  be  found,  and  whoever  could 
procure  fragments  of  them  used  them  as  orna- 

148.    Sea  -  green    Crackle    Vase.  .  . 

Height  171  inches.  Marryat.  ments  of  ceremonial  head-dresses,  or,  stringing 
(Fortune  Coll.)  them  on  a  thread  of  silk,  wore  them  as  a  necklace. 

Two  brothers  at  this  time,  the  elder  Sing-i,  the  younger  Sing-eul, 
were  celebrated  porcelain-makers,  the  elder  being  the  more  distinguished. 
His  porcelains  went  down  to  fame  as  Ko-yao,  "porcelains  of  the  elder 
brother."  These  were  of  fine  quality,  thin,  blue,  both  pale  and  deep ;  the 
enamel,  elegantly  crackled,  had  the  appearance  of  eggs  of  fish.  But  the 
most  highly  esteemed  were  his  vases  of  rice  color  or  pale  blue,  whose 
enamel  was  perfect.  The  younger  brother  also  produced  work  for  fame, 
and  his  pieces  were  also  blue,  both  pale  and  deep.  The  pale  blue  was 
always  more  highly  valued  by  the  Chinese,  and  of  this  maker  pale-blue 
vases  whose  enamel  was,  as  it  were,  studded  with  drops  of  rose-color,  are 
specially  noted. 

No  sketch  of  Chinese  potter-artists  can  be  complete  without  mention 


CHINA. 


241 


of  Chu-ong  (the  venerable  Chu,  or  old  Chu)  and  his  daughter  Chu-kiao 
(the  pretty  Chu),  who  lived  in  the  Song  Dynasty  (960-1126),  and  were  per- 
haps the  most  renowned  of  all.  The  father  excelled  in  curious  objects — 
birds,  beasts,  etc. ;  while  the  daughter,  who  excelled  her  father,  produced 
exquisite  works  of  all  kinds  in  all  colors.  Her  vases  always  sold  for  more 
than  their  weight  in  silver,  which  would  not  indeed  now  be  esteemed  a 
high  price  for  ceramic  art  of  the  best  class,  but  was  doubtless  then  re- 
garded as  an  extravagant  rate.  But  tastes  differ  in  China  as  elsewhere, 
and  the  author  of  one  of  the  Chinese  works  on  porcelain  condemns  the 
products  of  Chu  and  his  daughter  as  coarse  and  not  worth  admiring. 

In  all  these  early  annals  of  the  art  we  find  constant  mention  of  repro- 
ductions of  the  ancient  work.  In  the  Youen  Dynasty,  Pong-kium-pao  was 
a  potter  so  celebrated  for  his  reproductions  of  the  ancient  vases  of  Ting 
(618-907),  that  they  were  known  by  the  name  of  "new  vases  of  Ting." 

All  the  works  of  all  these  wonderful  artists  of  China,  concerning 
whose  jade-like  products  the  Chinese  writers  are  eloquent,  have  disap- 
peared. While  it  is  possible  and  probable  that  specimens  exist,  and  may 
even  be  in  our  Western  cabinets,  they  cannot  be  identified.  We  have 
specimens  made  during  the  Ming  Dynasty,  when  all  previous  works  were 
abundantly  copied  and  reproduced.  This  dynasty 
lasted  from  1368  to  16-17  a.d.  Its  porcelain  prod- 
ucts were  brilliant,  and  good  specimens  are  of  high 
value. 

In  the  fifteenth  century  we  first  begin  to  hear 
of  porcelains  ornamented  with  pictures  of  animals, 
landscapes,  polychrome  flower,  and  other  decora- 
tion. Lo,  a  potter  (1426-35),  excelled  in  painting 
combats  of  crickets;  and  two  sisters — Sieou  the 
greater,  and  Sieou  the  younger — engraved  similar 
cricket-fights  in  the  paste.  In  1465-87,  Kao-than- 
jin  decorated  jars  with  hens,  chickens,  and  peony 
flowers. 

In  the  Tching-te  period  (1506-,22),  a  governor 
of  Yun-nan  obtained  for  the  first  time  from  the 
Mohammedans  the  blue   of  cobalt,  and  its  effect  1*9-  Chinese  Vase.      Blue 

-i •    ,    i  •   •!  i       •       i.i  i    •  mi  •  dragon  decoration.     (Ave- 

was  immediately  visible  m  the  porcelains.      Ibis  5,.. 

new  color  received  the  name  Hoei-tsing,  or  Iloei- 

lioei-tsing,  which  mtc  are  told  means  "blue  of  the  Moslems  of  the  bar- 
barous Western  countries."  It  wTas  so  costly  when  first  obtained  that  an 
ounce  was  worth  two  ounces  of  gold.     The  emperor  having  ascertained 

16 


212  PORCELAIN. 


that  it  would  stand  the  firing,  ordered  its  use  in  the  royal  factory.  The 
workmen  stole  the  precious  pigment  and  sold  it  to  outside  manufacturers. 
"Its  color/'  says  the  Chinese  authority,  "  was  of  an  antique  tone  and  great 
beauty.  Hence,  among  the  porcelains  with  blue  flowers  of  the  Tching-te 
period  there  are  many  greatly  prized/1  It  is  not  known  what  had  been 
previously  used  for  blue,  but  it  was  probably  an  inferior  form  of  cobalt. 

Tsoui-hong  was  a  distinguished  maker  in  the  Kia-tsing  and  Long- 
khing  periods,  extending  from  1522  to  1572.  lie  imitated  old  work.  His 
wares  were  sought  with  great  avidity  by  his  contemporaries. 

Tcheou-tan-ts'ouen  (1507-1619)  was  a  potter  of  Tchang-nan,  and  one 
of  the  most  renowned  in  Chinese  history,  his  works  commanding  enor- 
mous prices.  He  specially  delighted  in  the  reproduction  of  the  rarest 
specimens  of  old  times,  and  his  imitations  deceived  the  most  skilful  Chi- 
nese lovers  of  the  art.  Of  him  the  story  is  told  that  he  one  day  called  on 
a  distinguished  officer,  and  asked  permission  to  see  a  rare  tripod  vase  of 
white  porcelain  of  Ting,  which  was  an  ornament  of  his  cabinet.  He 
held  it  a  short  time,  took  an  impression  of  the  crackle  with  a  piece  of 
paper  concealed  in  his  hand,  and  measured  its  size  with  hand  and  eye; 
then  hastened  home.  Six  months  after,  he  called  on  the  officer,  bringing 
a  fac-simile  of  the  old  vase,  which  on  comparison  showed  no  shade  of  dif- 
ference. The  cover  of  the  one  perfectly  fitted  the  other.  The  officer 
was  astonished,  bought  the  imitation  at  three  hundred  francs,  and  placed 
it  by  the  side  of  the  original,  making  a  pair. 

At  this  same  period  lived  On,  "  the  hermit  On  who  lives  in  solitude," 
as  he  signed  himself.  His  name  was  Hao-chi-khieou,  and  he  was  origi- 
nally a  poet,  writer,  and  painter.  lie  retired  to  a  solitary  life,  where  he 
made  exquisite  porcelain  which  he  signed  with  his  self-given  title.  He 
made  cups  of  egg-shell  ware,  red  and  white,  and  pale  blue  vases,  in  imi- 
tation of  the  old  wares  of  "  the  elder  brother1'  and  others. 

From  1662  to  1722,  the  imperial  factory,  under  the  direction  of  Thang- 
in-siouen,  made  excellent  porcelains,  thin,  brilliant,  of  various  colors,  the 
most  celebrated  of  wdiich  were  the  serpent-skin  green,  the  yellow  of  the 
eel,  the  azure,  and  the  yellow-spotted.  From  1722  to  1735  the  products 
were  equally  fine,  many  being  produced  in  "egg-color,  which  was  brilliant 
as  silver,11  blue,  and  other  colors.  As  we  have  before  seen,  the  period 
following  (1735  to  1795)  was  the  most  brilliant  in  the  history  of  the  im- 
perial factory,  when,  according  to  Chinese  authorities,  the  work  attained 
its  greatest  perfection.  In  the  present  century  Chinese  ceramic  art  has 
greatly  declined,  until  within  a  few  years,  when  indications  of  a  revival 
are   abundant.     Is  this  due  to  the  fact   that  Western  nations  demand 


CHINA.  243 

higher  art?  And  is  not  this  demand  due  to  the  taste  for  collecting  the 
finer  works  of  old  time? 

Let  us  now  examine  some  of  the  varieties  of  Chinese  porcelain. 

Old  White.  —  The  white  unpainted  porcelain  has  been  esteemed  in 
general  very  old.  It  is  now  reproduced  with  great  skill.  It  was  made 
in  early  times,  and  constantly  during  the  Ming  Dynasty  (1368-1647).  The 
white  wares  of  lliu-tcheou,  during  that  period,  are  highly  praised,  and 
white  statuettes  of  Buddha  have  since  that  time  been  a  speciality  of  the 
factories  of  Te-hoa.  Small  white  "altar -cups"  of  the  Emperor  Chin- 
tsong  (1573-1619)  are  named  as  of  great  beauty,  as  also  shallow  white 
cups  of  the  same  period,  which  were  sold  and  became  "the  fashion.1' 

A  Chinese  author  says,  "  The  potters  who  devote  themselves  specially 
to  making  vases  called  Pe-ting  (white),  such  as  coupes,  cups,  bowls,  plates, 
etc.,  make,  besides,  a  multitude  of  small  objects  of  virtu,  fine  and  common. 
In  all  the  manufactories  there  is  no  potter  who  does  not  make  them." 
And  yet  few  readers  of  this  have  ever  seen  a  vase,  cup,  or  plate  of  pure 
white  Chinese  porcelain  without  color  decoration.  Specimens  are  rare, 
and  good  old  examples  of  beautiful  paste  and  fabric  are  highly  prized. 

Two  quite  distinct  varieties  of  old  white  porcelain  are  known.  The 
one  has  a  brilliant  glassy  surface,  is  exceedingly  pure  in  paste  and  tone, 
sometimes  ornamented  with  delicate  tracery  of  fern  or  other  leaves  in  a 
white  of  slightly  different  shade,  occasionally  with  the  Greek  meander 
pattern.  The  other  variety  is  usually  more  creamy  in  color;  pieces  are 
ornamented  with  raised  work,  are  perforated,  sometimes  engraved.  The 
old  white  is  rarely  found  except  in  small  articles — statues  of  gods,  sacred 
animals,  birds,  kylins,  the  dog  Fo,  and  cups  or  vases  beautifully  orna- 
mented in  high-relief.  The  paste  and  enamel  of  both  varieties  are  ex- 
ceedingly fine,  and  specimens  are  rare.  The  modern  imitations  have  not 
hitherto  reached  the  brilliant  purity  of  the  older  specimens. 

Celadon. — This  name  applies  specially  to  articles  covered  with  a  deli- 
cate sea-green  enamel,  which  varies  in  purity.  It  is  also  given  to  articles 
whose  ground  is  of  this  color,  with  ornamentation  in  other  shades,  and  to 
a  variety  also  called  starch  blue.  The  sea-green  is  by  some  supposed  to 
be  the  oldest  color  decoration  of  the  Chinese.  This  and  also  the  starch- 
blue  occur  on  the  bottles  found  in  Egypt.  Specimens  are  ornamented 
with  geometric  lines,  figures  and  flowers  in  relief,  and  with  designs  made 
by  engraving  the  paste  and  filling  in  with  paste  of  a  lighter  or  deeper 
tone.  The  latter  is  celadon  tf<>/,;:.  Panels  on  vases  have  sometimes  hu- 
man figures  and  other  ornamentation  in  blue,  or  in  relief  of  blue  and 
white.     Modern  celadon  is  abundant,, but  seldom  so  delicate  in  tone  as  the 


244- 


rOHCELAIX. 


older  work.  Very  old  specimens  are  found,  of  which  the  body  is  coarse, 
heavy  paste,  resembling  hard  pottery.  Some  of  the  bottles  found  in 
Egypt  are  of  this  class. 

Crackle. — This  decoration, consisting  simply  in  subjecting  the  surface 
enamel  to  a  process  which  cracks  it  more  or  less  according  to  will,  is  a 
puzzle  to  the  taste  of  Western  nations.  The  Chinese  have  admired  it  for 
a  thousand  years.  We  find  that  in  their  accounts  of  the  ancient  porcelain, 
fragments  of  which  were  prized  as  jewels,  they  speak  of  the  delicacy  of 

the  crackle  as  a  distinguishing  feature. 
It  is  in  vain  to  dispute  about  tastes. 
If  the  polished  Greek,  possessing  glass, 
preferred  to  drink  at  feasts  from  the 
heavy  black  kylix  of  earthenware,  surely 
the  Chinese  have  right  to  their  admira- 
tion of  the  cracked  surface  of  porcelain. 
Possibly  the  taste  originated  in  the  old 
look  which  it  gave  to  a  new  article. 
They  have  made  crackled  ware  in  all 
times  down  to  the  present ;  and  in 
very  large  objects  the  crackle  has  some 
effect.  To  an  ancient  gray  vase  (111. 
150)  in  our  collection,  which  is  22 
inches  high,  and  1G|-  inches  in  largest 
diameter,  the  crackled  surface  gives  a 
certain  cyclopean  effect. 

The  process  of  making  this  surface 
has  been  managed  by  the  Chinese  with 
wonderful  dexterity.  They  made  the  cracks  more  or  less  numerous, 
larger  or  smaller,  on  all  the  surface,  or  left  uncracked  medallions  and 
portions  at  will.  The  crackle  is  produced,  according  to  Pere  D'Entre- 
colles,  by  the  use  of  a  surface  paste,  in  which  steatite  forms  a  component 
part,  and  the  hot  piece  being  plunged  into  cold  water,  this  surface  paste 
at  once  cracks.  Color  is  then  rubbed  in.  In  other  cases  the  vase,  fixed 
in  a  frame,  is  heated  at  particular  spots  and  suddenly  cooled,  producing 
local  crackle.  This  explanation  does  not  suffice  to  explain  the  dexterity 
with  which  the  operators  seem  to  have  determined  at  will  the  size,  style, 
and  extent  of  the  cracks.  We  have  found  in  several  broken  specimens 
that  each  vase  has  a  core  of  paste  different  from  the  surface  paste,  and 
through  which  the  cracks  do  not  extend. 

The  most  minute  variety  is  called  truite,  from  its  fancied  resemblance 


150.  Gray  Crackle  V&ae.     Height  22  indies 
(T.-P.  Coll.) 


CHINA. 


245 


to  a  trout's  skin.  The  final  glaze  usually  covers  the  cracks  ;  but  on  large 
objects  the  glaze  sinks  into  them,  and  they  are  perceptible  to  the  finger- 
nail. 

Blue. — This  color  was  used  by  the  Chinese  from  a  very  early  period, 
and  the  taste  of  the  West  agrees  with  that  of  the  East  in  admiring  it 
whether  used  as  a  ground-color  covering  the  entire  surface,  or  contrasting 
with  the  white  on  which 
it  is   laid.     Chinese   ar- 
tists   employed     it    for 
their  most  elaborate  pict- 
ures, and  a  great  varie- 
ty of  subjects  are  illus- 
trated   on     old    pieces. 
Various  shades  of  blue 
are  found  ;  but  it  is  ques- 
tionable    whether     any 
specimens   can  be    veri- 
fied  as  of  the  oldest  va-  1BL  Cup  of  Sacrifice.     (Avery  Coll.) 

rieties,  made  before  the  introduction  of  pure  cobalt  at  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  although  many  are  supposed  to  be  of  that  class.  The 
varieties  of  blue  porcelain  may  be  thus  stated:  1.  The  common  blue  of 
Nankin  wares;  2.  A  soft  clouded  blue,  supposed  to  be  the  "blue  of  the 
sky  after  rain ;"  3.  The  turquoise ;  4.  The  lapis  lazuli ;  5.  The  blue  fouet- 
te ;  6.  The  souffle.  Varying  shades  add  numerous  varieties  to  these.  The 
turquoise  is  very  rich,  and  old  specimens  have  always  commanded  enor- 
mous prices.  This  color  has  in  all  times  and  countries  attracted  admira- 
tion, and  has  never,  in  any  instance,  been  more  exquisitely  produced  than 
by  the  inventors  of  enamel,  the  ancient  Egyptians.  But  the  Chinese  ex- 
cel all  nations  in  the  variety  of  the  shades.  A  rare  color  is  a  shade  which 
when  placed  by  a  blue  object  appears  distinctly  green,  and  when  con- 
trasted with  a  green  object  seems  certainly  blue. 

It  is  of  course  impossible  to  define  in  words  the  shades  of  color  which 
are  specially  prized  by  collectors.  But  no  eye,  if  only  half  educated,  will 
fail  to  select,  among  the  varieties  of  Chinese  blues,  those  which  are  pecul- 
iarly charming.  None,  however,  were  produced  in  China  finer  than  the 
colors  of  modern  Europe.  Some  of  the  old  Staffordshire  crockery  of  1810 
to  1825  was  superb  in  blue,  equalling  or  surpassing  the  Chinese  tints  of 
the  same  class. 

Blue -and- white  porcelains,  familiar  to  every  one  in  table  wares,  are 
justly  prized  when  fine  in  color.     Nothing  is  more  delicious  in  nature  or 


246 


l'OIlCELAIX. 


in  art  than  this  combination.  No  other  class  of  the  Chinese  lias  so  great 
a  variety  of  picture  decoration.  It  is  in  every  form  and  style.  Flowers, 
figures,  groups,  dragons,  monsters,  appear  in  vast  variety.  The  quality  of 
the  blue  color  varies,  and  the  value  of  specimens  varies  with  it.  A  rich 
clear  blue  on  a  pure  white  ground  is  always  line.  Sometimes  a  pale 
yellow  or  Nankin  color  is  introduced,  usually  on  fine  pieces,  producing 
an  odd  effect,  but  not  adding  beauty.  The  modern  imitations  of  the  old 
blue  and  white  are  fully  equal  to  them  in  color;  but  the  modern  style  of 
drawing  is  different,  and  in  general  affords  means  of  determining  its  age. 

But  it  is  quite  impossible  to  separate  the  un- 
marked works  of  different  periods  before  1800 
a.d.  Many  specimens  classed  as  Chinese  are 
probably  of  Persian  fabric,  and  many  others 
are  decorated  in  Persian  styles  for  that  mar- 
ket. 

The  first  importations  of  Chinese  porcelain 

into  Holland  were  decorated  in  blue  only,  and 

it  would  seem  probable  that  for  some  time  no 

others   were   brought   to   Europe.      Pontanus 

("Berum  et  Urbis  Amstelodamensium  Histo- 

ria,"  Amsterdam,  1611)  describes  the  very  large 

porcelain  importations  of  the  Dutch  East  India 

Company.      In  a  discussion    of  the   question 

whether  these  porcelains  were  the  vasa  rnur- 

rhina  of  Pliny,  he  quotes  the  description  of 

this  author,  and  admits  a  certain  resemblance, 

Blue  and  ^^  hl  the  matter  of  colors,  wherein  Pliny 

white.    Height  22  inches.    (T.-  describes  the  marvellous  beauty  and  variety  of 

P-Coll0  tints  which  characterized  the  myrrhine,  "  and," 

says  Pontanus,  "what  Pliny  calls  colors  are  not  seen  on  the  porcelains  of 

our  time,  which,  so  far  as  I  know,  have  only  blue  mingled  with  white." 

The  other  bines,  which  cover  the  ground,  vary  in  shades  and  in  meth- 
ods of  application.  The  turquoise  is  applied  chiefly  to  smaller  objects — 
vases,  birds,  figures,  dogs,  kylins,  fish,  etc.  Engraved  fern-leaves,  meander, 
and  geometric  patterns  are  found  on  this  as  on  other  colors.  The  lapis 
lazuli  is  often  relieved  by  gold  and  arabesque  patterns.  The  fouette 
rarely  covers  entire  pieces  in  the  old  work,  but  leaves  medallions  or  spaces 
for  other  decoration. 

Polychrome. — M.  Jacquemart  has  suggested  a  division  of  the  poly- 
chrome decorations  of  Oriental  porcelains  into  three  classes:  (1)  Chryscmr 


CHINA.  2±7 

ihemo-jpoionienne  ;  (2)  Green  •  and  (3)  Hose;  giving  the  names  on  account 
of  the  predominance  of  the  chrysanthemum  and  peony  in  the  first,  and  of 
the  respective  colors  in  the  second  and  third.  This  classification,  however, 
is  practically  useful  for  only  a  comparatively  small  number  of  specimens. 
A  very  large  portion  of  the  most  beautiful  polychrome  wares  cannot  be 
placed  under  either  head.  There  are  many  pieces,  however,  which  possess 
these  characteristics.  A  large  variety  of  beautiful  wares  is  marked  by  the 
predominance  of  a  soft  lead-colored  blue,  united  with  iron-red  and  gold. 
Teapots  and  services  are  found  in  these  colors,  as  wTell  as  vases,  and  the 
combination  of  color  is  one  of  the  least  glaring  and  most  charming  in 
Chinese  decoration.  The  rose  color,  varying  to  carmine,  is  generally  used 
as  a  thick  enamel.  It  is  rarely  found  as  a  ground-color  on  pieces  which 
are  not  laboriously  decorated,  and  few  varieties  command  as  high  prices. 
The  subject  paintings  —  scenes  from  Oriental  life,  history,  and  drama, 
found  on  pieces  which  are  backed  with  rose  color  —  are  generally  very 
carefully  painted,  and  grounds  of  exquisite  arabesque  ornamentation  in 
colors  surround  them.  The  ruby,  the  deepest  of  the  rose  colors,  is  very 
rare. 

In  solid  colors,  some  of  the  deep  reds  have  been  highly  esteemed. 
The  liver  colors,  of  different  shades,  are  curious,  and  reproduced  in  quan- 
tity at  the  present  time.  Some  of  the  old  shades,  however,  seem  to  defy 
imitation,  especially  one  in  which  there  is  an  iridescence  or  a  lustre  of  ex- 
ceeding power.  Specimens  are  of  the  highest  rarity.  One  in  the  col- 
lection of  S.  L.  M.  Barlow,  Esq. — a  vase  which  has  a  well-known  pedigree 
in  China — is  perhaps  without  a  rival. 

The  list  of  reproductions  at  King-te-tchin,  hereafter  to  be  given,  will 
furnish  the  reader  with  a  very  complete  catalogue  of  other  noted  colors. 

The  Chrysanthemo-poeonienne  pieces  have  more  or  less  rich  flower 
decoration  on  white  grounds.  For  we  cannot  include  in  this  class  those  on 
blue  and  other  grounds,  some  of  which  are  among  the  rarest  and  most 
brilliant  of  porcelains.  Nor  can  we  class  here  but  a  few  of  the  specimens 
decorated  with  landscapes,  birds,  insects,  figures,  and  groups,  an  infinite 
variety  of  designs,  with  more  or  less  intermingling  of  flowers.  Some  un- 
common old  specimens  have  game-cocks  standing  among  branches  of  brill- 
iant flowers,  and  these  birds  are  painted  with  more  freedom  of  touch  than 
most  Chinese  works.  The  marvel  of  Chinese  decorations  is  often  the  ab- 
sence of  all  semblance  of  reality  in  colors  of  objects,  while  the  combined 
effect  is  delightful.  A  small  service  in  our  collection  illustrates  this. 
Each  piece,  large  or  small,  has  the  same  decoration.  A  large  duck  is  in 
deep  chocolate  brown,  his  feathers  gold.      He  stands  on  a  rock,  which  is 


248  PORCELAIN. 


brilliant  and  pure  rose-color.  By  him  stands  a  vase  of  soft  turquoise  blue, 
holding  flowers  of  deep  claret,  pale  rose,  lemon  yellow,  brown  and  gold, 
with  leaves  of  green.  The  rock  and  the  vase  are  supported  on  a  large 
acanthus-leaf  of  bleu-de-roi,  veined  with  green  and  black.  Such  decora- 
tions cannot  be  classed  by  any  predominating  color. 

The  green  predominates  in  pieces  which  are  decorated  with  religious, 
historical,  hunting,  and  other  subjects,  but  these  are  intermingled  with 
the  same  decorations  and  colors  found  on  other  wares. 

The  yellow  wares  of  China  have  an  inexplicable  reputation  in  Western 
countries,  growing,  perhaps,  out  of  a  statement  made  by  some  early  trav- 
ellers that  the  exportation  of  the  "imperial-yellow"  porcelain  was  forbid- 
den. There  are  several  varieties  of  the  yellow,  from  a  pale  straw-color  to 
a  deep,  dirty  orange.  They  are  decorated  variously,  by  engraved  lines 
only,  and  by  colored  reliefs  and  paintings.  They  are  not  so  rare  as  some 
of  the  blues  and  other  colors,  and  are  reproduced  at  the  present  time  by 
the  Japanese  in  great  perfection.  Even  some  of  the  old  varieties  are 
condemned  by  the  taste  of  the  Chinese.  A  frequent  phrase  occurs  in  the 
Chinese  books,  "enamel  of  secret  colors,"  defined  as  colors  reserved  for 
the  royal  use.  It  nowhere  appears  what  they  were,  and  they  probably 
varied  from  time  to  time,  the  reservation  being  only  temporary. 

We  have  spoken  thus  far  of  color  decoration  chiefly.  It  remains  to 
add  that  the  Chinese  made  beautiful  reticulated  work,  in  vases  and  table 
wares;  they  made  the  " grains-of-rice "  work  in  which  small  holes  through 
the  paste  of  the  bowl  or  cup  were  filled  with  the  translucent  enamel. 
They  decorated  vases  with  lacquer  in  gorgeous  colors,  leaving  porcelain 
surfaces  brilliantly  painted,  or  with  lacquer  inlaid  with  shell  in  patterns. 
They  made  imitations  of  bamboo-work  in  colors;  and  figures,  groups,  drag- 
ons, dogs,  fish,  parrots,  images  of  gods  and  men,  decorated  in  all  kinds  of 
colors. 

European  pictures  and  Greek  mythological  pictures  were  introduced 
to  the  Chinese  by  the  Europeans  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  cen- 
turies, and  were  copied  by  them  in  their  peculiar  style  on  their  wares  for 
European  markets.  We  have  an  egg-shell  te^-service  decorated  in  ovals 
with  a  picture  of  Diana  and  Endymion,  which  is  grotesque.  While  the 
Chinese  are  called  a  nation  of  copyists,  they  are  not  close  copyists,  and 
could  never  reproduce  a  European  picture  so  as  to  deceive  even  an  inex- 
perienced  eye. 

It  is  said  there  was  a  peculiar  porcelain  of  China  called  kia-tsing, 
which  is  white  until  filled  with  liquid,  when  decorations,  usually  fish,  were 
seen.     Pere  D'Entrecolles  says  that  in  his  day  (1712)  the  art  of  making  it 


CHINA.  249 

was  lost,  but  lie  describes  what  lie  understood  to  be  the  process.  On  the 
inside  of  a  thin  cup  the  fish  were  painted,  and  when  dry  a  coating  of  very 
thin  paste  of  the  porcelain  was  laid  over,  and  over  this  an  enamel.  Then 
the  outside  was  ground  off  as  thin  as  possible  without  touching  the  paint, 
and  enamelled  by  dipping,  and  the  whole  then  baked.  It  is  not  clear  how 
this  would  produce  the  described  effect,  nor  do  we  know  of  any  specimens 
of  this  peculiar  decoration. 

Egg-shell  porcelain  is  among  the  delicate  products  of  China,  now  imi- 
tated in  several  European  factories.  It  was  made  by  enamelling  a  vase  or 
cup  on  the  inside,  baking,  then  grinding  down  the  outer  surface  until  the 
paste  was  practically  removed,  leaving  the  inside  thin  enamel  to  stand  as 
the  body  of  the  vessel,  while  another  thin  enamel  was  placed  on  the  out- 
side. It  was  made  first  in  the  Yong-lo  period,  about  1425,  and  perfected 
about  1405.  Good  specimens  are  rare.  They  were  beautifully  decorated 
in  the  richest  colors. 

The  porcelain  tower  of  Licouli,  near  Nankin,  no  longer  exists,  having 
been  destroyed  in  the  Tae-ping  rebellion.  Tradition  says  that  the  first 
tower  was  one  of  eighty-four  thousand  towers  erected  about  833  b.c.  It 
was  destroyed,  and  rebuilt  3Tl-'73  a.d.,  and  again  destroyed,  to  be  rebuilt 
by  an  emperor  of  the  Ming  Dynasty,  1431  a.d.  This  last  structure  was 
about  330  feet  high,  overlaid  with  enamelled  bricks  of  brilliant  colors. 
Many  superb  fragments,  in  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  attest  the 
splendid  blue,  red,  green,  and  yellow  colors,  and  the  purity  of  the  white. 
These  massive  pieces  are  of  porcelain  paste,  with  ornaments  in  relief,  bold 
and  richly  enamelled. 

It  has  been  remarked  already  that  porcelain  factories  abound  in  China, 
scattered  in  various  districts.  The  private  manufacturers  have  rivalled  the 
Government  works  at  all  times.  King-te-tchin,  the  city  or  borough  of 
King-te,  has  been  since  the  sixth  century  a  noted  seat  of  potteries,  owned 
by  private  potters.  Among  these  the  Government  works  were  estab- 
lished, in  the  first  years  of  the  Ming  Dynasty,  its  furnaces  scattered 
among  the  private  works.  The  porcelain  industry  at  King-te-tchin  was 
without  parallel  in  the  world.  From  the  fourteenth  century  the  whole 
town  has  been  under  a  special  superintendent  and  governor  appointed 
by  the  Government.  Upward  of  three  thousand  furnaces  were  at  work 
there  thirty  years  ago;  but  in  the  Tae-ping  rebellion  the  city  was  nearly 
destroyed,  and  we  have  no  late  information  of  its  condition.  The  story  is 
told  of  it,  as  of  Chelsea,  in  England,  that  in  early  times  merchants  crowded 
at  the  opening  of  the  furnaces  to  rival  each  other  in  purchasing.  Much 
of  the  porcelain  made  here  was  sent  in  white  condition,  to  be  decorated 


250  PORCELAIN. 


for  foreign  markets  a1  Nankin  and  at  Canton.  The  Nankin  decorations 
are  in  general  superior. 

The  pottery  of  China-  lias  attracted  less  attention  than  the  porcelain, 
but  is  no  less  remarkable.  It  has  always  been  made  for  ordinary  uses. 
Fountains,  flower-pots,  water-jars,  lamps,  and  various  domestic  utensils  are 
made,  and  many  are  enamelled  in  brilliant  colors.  Pottery  teapots  are 
j) referred  to  porcelain  in  China.  Stone-wares,  red,  and  of  other  colors, 
have  been  made  for  ages.  Some  of  these  come  to  us  in  the  form  of  pickle 
and  preserve  jars,  and  occasionally  these  furnish  specimens  of  the  rarest 
colors  in  enamel. 

Chinese  gentlemen  are  lovers  of  old  porcelains,  and  pay  even  higher 
prices  than  the  most  extravagant  of  Western  collectors.  Counterfeits 
abound,  intended  to  deceive  them.  Modern  European  factories  counter- 
feit their  own  ancient  work  and  marks,  and  it  is  not  strange  that  the  same 
motives  impel  the  Chinese  to  the  same  frauds.  Even  in  1712,  Pere  D'En- 
trecolles  says  that  his  friend  the  Mandarin  of  King-te-tchin  made  counter- 
feits of  the  old  celadons  for  presents  to  his  friends.  And  this  was  before 
the  days  of  the  great  director  Thang,  in  whose  time  the  royal  factories 
reached  their  highest  perfection. 

Perhaps  no  more  instructive  matter  can  be  given  to  the  modern  col- 
lector than  is  contained  in  the  sixth  book  of  the  Chinese  work  translated 
by  M.  Julien,  which  gives  a  catalogue  of  the  ancient  porcelains  repro- 
duced at  King-te-tchin,  and  some  of  the  new  inventions  of  Thang.  From 
this  will  be  seen  how  great  is  the  difficulty  before  the  collector  who  de- 
sires to  determine  the  antiquity  of  his  specimens  of  Chinese  porcelain. 
The  catalogue  begins  with  reproductions  of  ancient  porcelain  vases  in 
enamels  on  iron  and  copper  bodies,  which  are  classed  with  porcelains. 
After  these  come  enamels  on  porcelain  bodies. 

5.  White  enamels,  white  as  flour. 

6.  Enamel  of  Kiun,  including  four  kinds  newly  invented  :  a,  red,  color  of  a  pre- 
cious stone;  6,  red,  color  of  the  Japan  pear  blossom;  c,  violet,  color  of  egg-plant; 
d,  blue,  color  of  a  plum;  e,  color  of  a  mule's  liver;  f,  color  of  a  horse's  lungs. 
The  four  newly  invented  colors  are:  ff,  a  new  violet;  h,  rice  color;  i,  sky-blue; 
j,  enamel  which  changes  color  in  firing. 

7.  Enamel  red  of  two  kinds — one  lively,  one  (perhaps)  of  red  jasper. 

8.  Enamel  blue  and  deep  red  imitating  porcelains  of  1426-35,  having  surfaces 
like  orange-skin  or  like  little  buds  of  the  flower  of  the  tsong  tree. 

0.  Enamel  of  the  imperial  porcelain,  three  kinds :  «,  yellow  of  the  eel ;  b,  green 
of  serpent's  skin  ;  <?,  spotted  or  stippled  yellow. 

11.   Enamel  blue  of  the  East;  two  kinds — pale  and  dark. 


CHINA.  251 

12.  Enamel  of  the  Song,  rice  color,  and  pale  blue,  copied  from  fragments  found 
near  the  ruins  of  an  ancient  factory. 

13.  Enamel  green  of  oil,  like  ancient  vases  called  Yao  pien. 

14.  Enamel  Lou-kiun-yeou  (a  changeable  blue  with  veins  and  waves). 

15.  Enamels  of  Ngeou,  red  and  blue. 

16.  Enamel  stippled  blue. 

17.  Enamel  moon-white  without  crackle,  on  white  body,  without  veins;  it  is  of 
two  shades — pale  and  off-color. 

18.  Imitations  of  vases  of  1426-35  of  four  kinds,  severally  marked  on  the  bot- 
toms with  the  signs  for  three  fish,  three  fruits,  three  mushrooms,  the  word  "  happi- 
ness "  thrice  repeated. 

19.  Enamel  blue,  shining  like  a  gem — a  new  invention  of  four  varieties,  distin- 
guished by  the  four  marks  in  No.  18. 

20.  Enamel  called  Fei-tsoui,  of  three  kinds  :  a,  uniform  blue  ;  b,  stippled  blue  ; 
C,  blue  stippled  with  gold. 

21.  Enamel  red  souffle  (the  color  applied  by  blowing  it  through  lace  on  the  end 
of  a  tube,  scattering  small  bubbles  which  burst  and  leave  thousands  of  minute  bub- 
ble lines). 

22.  Enamel  blue  souffle. 

23.  Imitations  of  vases  of  the  Yong-lo  period ;  a,  those  in  which  the  body  is  re- 
moved, leaving  only  the  enamel  (commonly  known  as  egg-shell) ;  b,  the  white  vases 
without  color  of  1403-'24  ;  c,  chased  or  engraved  vases. 

24.  Reproductions  of  porcelains  of  1506-21,  and  of  1573-1619. 

25.  Reproductions  of  porcelains  of  1465-'87. 

26.  Vases  with  flowers  on  yellow  ground. 

27.  Enamel  "in  blue  method,"  discovered  by  recent  experiments;  a,  like  the 
"sky-blue  after  rain  ;"  b,  like  the  thick  red  ;  c,  like  the  deep  blue. 

28.  Vases  imitating  the  European,  with  figures  in  relief,  chiselled  or  moulded. 

29.  Vases  pale  yellow  and  pale  green,  with  flowers  engraved  in  the  paste. 

30.  Vases  pale  violet,  with  flowers,  and  with  flowers  engraved. 

31.  Vases  of  all  kinds  of  enamel  with  engraved  flowers. 

32.  Vases  of  all  enamels  with  flowers  in  relief. 

33.  Imitations  of  ancient  red  vases. 

34.  Yellow  vases  of  Europe. 

35.  Violet  vases  of  Europe  (a  newr  invention). 

36.  Silvered  vases,  and  gilded  vases  (a  new  invention). 

37.  Vases  black  as  ink,  with  colored  enamel  (a  new  invention). 

38.  Vases  decorated  with  ink  designs,  dark  or  pale,  mountains,  water,  figures, 
flowers,  plants,  birds,  quadrupeds  (a  new  invention). 

39.  Imitations  of  porcelains  of  1426-'35,  white  grounds  with  paintings,  thick 
and  thin,  large  and  small. 

40.  Imitations  of  the  blue  flowers  of  the  porcelains  of  1521-,66. 


252  PORCELAIN. 


41.  Imitations  of  the  lightly  sketched  blue  flowers  of  the  Tching-hoa  period. 

42.  Enamel  rice  color,  pale  and  dark,  differing  from  the  old  of  the  Song. 

43.  Vases  with  red  enamel  (Yeou-li-hong) ;  either  completely  covered  with  the 
red,  or  having  green  leaves  or  red  flowers.  (This  is  not  paint,  but  red  enamel, 
which  runs  down  in  thick  masses.) 

44.  Imitations  of  the  enamel  feuille-morte  ;  two  kinds — red  and  yellow. 

45.  Vases  pale  yellow,  with  enamel  ornaments  (a  recent  discovery). 

46.  Imitations  of  the  pale-green  porcelains;  two  kinds — plain  ground,  and  with 
engraved  flowers. 

47.  Vases  with  enamels  in  European  style,  painted  with  enamel  colors,  land- 
scapes, animals,  figures. 

48.  Vases  of  all  enamels  with  flowers. 

49.  Imitation  of  the  enamel  Ou-kin,  or  mat  black;  two  kinds — black  grounds 
with  white  flowers,  and  black  grounds  with  light  designs  in  gold  (a  new  invention). 

50.  Green  vases  in  European  taste. 

51.  Red  vases  in  European  taste. 

52.  Enamelled  vases,  mat  black,  in  European  taste  (a  new  invention). 

53.  Vases frotte  cfor  (rubbed  with  gold). 

54.  Imitations  of  the  vases  "  rubbed  with  gold  "  of  Indo-China. 

55.  Silver-rubbed  vases  of  Indo-China. 

To  attempt  any  description  of  the  styles  of  decoration  used  by  the 
Chinese  is  a  waste  of  effort.  They  are  innumerable  in  variety,  and  there 
is  no  limit  to  the  extent  of  collections  illustrating  them.  Among  their 
special  characteristics  are  dragons,  kylins,  the  dog  Fo,  the  spotted  deer,  and 
the  fong-hoang.  The  dragons  are  various — one  of  the  heavens,  one  of  the 
hills,  one  of  the  sea.  They  are  represented  in  a  variety  of  forms  and  col- 
ors. The  imperial  dragon  has  always  five  claws,  the  symbol  of  the  em- 
peror and  higher  princes ;  while  that  with  four  claws  is  the  emblem  of 
princes  of  lower  rank.  The  kylin,  a  nondescript  monster  with  a  dragon's 
head,  is  regarded  with  great  favor  as  a  bringer  of  good-luck,  notwithstand- 
ing his  hideous  appearance,  and  is  often  modelled  in  porcelain,  and  enam- 
elled in  rich  color.  Turquoise  kylins  were  once  highly  prized.  The  dog 
Fo  is  the  temple  guardian  of  the  Buddhists,  a  favorite  figure  in  porce- 
lain of  all  periods,  and  appears  constantly  as  the  knob  on  covers,  and  sur- 
mounting vases.  The  fong-hoang,  represented  with  long  streaming  feath- 
ers, is  a  bird  of  good  omen,  once  the  symbol  of  the  emperors,  and  now 
that  of  the  empress. 

Chinese  wares  are  sometimes  marked  with  dates,  sometimes  with  mot- 
toes expressive  of  good  wishes,  with  indications  of  the  rank  and  quality 
of  the  persons  for  whose  use  the  wares  are  intended,  with  symbolic  signs, 


CHINA.  253 

etc.  The  method  of  dating  is  usually  by  the  name  of  the  dynasty  and 
reign  of  the  ruling  sovereign.  It  is  customary  in  China  to  give  to  each 
reign  a  name,  such  as  "  the  brilliant,"  "  the  excellent,"  etc.  So,  also,  with 
the  dynasties.  The  "Ming"  Dynasty  means  the  "illustrious"  dynasty. 
With  the  names  of  the  dynasty  and  the  reign  sometimes  occur  two  signs 
for  two  words — -nien  (years  or  period)  che  (made).  Here,  for  example,  is 
one  of  the  marks  of  a  period  or  reign  in  the  Ming  Dynasty. 
It  commences  in  reading  at  the  right  hand,  top,  and  is  read  4/Lk  HH  1 
downward  as  the  signs  are  numbered,  thus:  1,  Ta;  2, 
Ming;  3,  Ching;  4,  Hwa;  5,  Nien;  6,  Che;  which  is,  in  5j*i  Hfl  2 
English,  1,  2,  Great  Ming;  3,  4,  Ching -hwa;  5,  6,  period  . 

made;  and  means  "  made  in  Ching -hwa  period  of  Great  6rRj[    ajX3 
Ming  Dynasty."     The  Emperor  Tchnn-ti  reigned  1465-  ' 

'87,  and  his  reign  was  called  the  Ching-hwa  period. 

Pieces  having  this  mark,  if  genuine,  are  of  that  period.  It  will  be 
seen  that  the  third  and  fourth  of  these  signs  are  the  name  of  the  period. 
Accordingly,  in  the  Table  of  Marks  we  omit  the  dynasty  signs  and  those 
signifying  "period  made,"  and  give  only  the  two  which  name  the  period. 
We  may  remark  here  that  the  porcelains  having  the  "  six  marks,"  so  called, 
of  the  period  above  given  are  more  highly  esteemed  than  any  others. 
Those  of  the  Yung-lo,  Seuen-tih,  Ivea-tsing,  and  Wan-leih  periods  of  the 
Ming  Dynasty  are  also  prized.  All  these  are  admirably  counterfeited, 
with  the  marks,  in  modern  times.  We  have  some  remarkably  fine  blue- 
and-white  specimens  made  (in  Japan)  within  the  past  year,  with  the  six 
marks  of  the  reign  of  Ching-hwa.  Careful  examination  and  comparison 
with  the  marks  given  in  the  Table  are  necessary ;  for  Chinese  workmen 
were  not  always  skilful  writers,  and  the  same  mark,  written  by  different 
hands,  varies  greatly,  quite  as  much  as  ordinary  English  handwritings. 

Another  class  of  Chinese  marks  are  called  seal  marks.  Those  are  in  a 
character  used  only  for  such  purposes,  and  the  signs  are  of  similar  value 
to  those  in  the  six  marks.     The  example  here  given  reads,  "Made  in  the 

period  of  Kien-long  (1736 -'95)  of  the  Thsing  Dynasty. 

In  these  seal  marks  various  signs  are  used  having  the  same 

value.  Potters1  names  and  factory  marks  rarely  occur  on 
ffiUpS  ^  Chinese  ware.  Square  marks,  resembling  seal  marks,  but 
n-J~iPxl|  |LU    illegible,  are  common.     The  six-mark  dates  were  suspended 

by  one  of  the  directors  in  1667,  for  the  assigned  reason  that 
the  emperor's  name  should  not  be  placed  where  it  would  be  subject  to 
the  degradation  attending  the  fate  of  broken  porcelain  thrown  out  into 
waste  heaps. 


254 


1'OIK  I.I.MS. 


The  various  symbolic  marks  abounding  on  Chinese  wares  are  but  little 
understood,  as  we  know  little  of  the  Chinese  civilization.  It  is  supposed 
that  some  forms,  occurring  also  in  the  decorations  of  pieces,  have  special 
reference  to  the  class  of  people  for  whom  the  wares  were  made.  "  Porce- 
lain for  the  magistrates"  is  an  expression  in  the  Chinese  books. 


Sonorous  Stone. 


Outang. 


A  Shell. 


Treasured  uf  Writing. 


o 


3s 

r~~i 


Pearl 


Tablet  of  Honor,  enclosing 

the  Swastika.  Sacred  Axe. 

155.  Symbolic  Marks  on  Chinese  Porcelains. 


Celosia. 


Some  of  the  symbols  of  most  frequent  occurrence  in  decorations  are 
here  illustrated.  The  outang  is  a  leaf  sung  by  poets  and  placed  over  di- 
vinities. Writing  instruments  are  supposed  to  indicate  that  wares  are  in- 
tended for  the  learned.  The  sonorous  stone,  placed  at  temple-gates  and 
other  public  places,  is  for  judicial  officers.  The  sacred  axe  is  for  soldiers. 
The  celosia,  or  cock's -comb,  is  an  emblem  of  longevity.  The  tablet  of 
honor  is  an  imperial  gift  to  an  officer.  This  symbol  includes  the  swas- 
tika (the  ''sign  of  life"),  the  Asiatic  symbol  of  old  Phenician  times. 
Many  other  symbolic  marks  will  be  found  in  the  Table. 

Painted  enamel  cups,  and  cloisonne  enamel  vases,  and  other  objects 
come  to  us  in  abundance  from  China.  The  art  of  making  these  wares 
enamelled  on  metal  was  learned  by  the  Chinese  from  the  Mohammedans 
of  Western  Asia  in  comparatively  modern  times.  Our  Chinese  authority, 
writing  in  1815  (M.  Julien,  page  35),  divides  them  into  three  classes,  all  of 
which  he  includes  under  Yao  (porcelain),  and  he  describes  all  as  foreign 
art.  The  first  is  Ta-chi-yao,  porcelain  of  the  Arabs,  with  copper  body,  on 
which  are  enamels  in  all  colors.  "I  know  not,"  he  says,  "at  what  epoch 
they  were  first  made."  The  second  class  is  Fo-lang-hien-yao,  porcelain 
of  Fo-lang  (countries  of  Europe).  They  are  also  called  porcelain  of  the 
kingdom  of  devils.  These  are  very  small  pieces,  enamelled  in  colors  on 
copper,  and  were  imitated  in  China  by  workmen  who  came  from  the 


COREA. 


255 


province  of  Yun-nan,  and  established  themselves  in  the  capital.  Ynn-nan 
was  the  province  whose  governor  obtained  cobalt  from  the  Arabs,  and 
introduced  it  to  China.  Probably  this  class  of  enamels,  said  to  be  chiefly 
in  cups  for  wine,  resembling  European  enamels,  is  represented  by  the 
great  numbers  of  small  bowls  and  cups  with  covers,  decorated  with  paint- 
ed enamel  in  brilliant  color,  coming  to  us  from  China.  Since  this  author 
wrote,  the  art  has  been  applied  to  many  other  objects,  large  and  small. 

He  next  speaks  of  a  class  of  enamels  on  copper  which  are  called  Yang- 
tse-yao,  or  simply  porcelain  with  enamel.  "  The  making  of  these,"  he 
says,  "  commenced  in  the  kingdom  of  Kou-li,  on  the  shores  of  the  west- 
ern sea.  No  one  knows  when  the  art  began."  The  vases  are  on  copper 
bodies,  very  thin,  covered  with  enamel  of  various  colors,  and  ring  like  cop- 
per when  struck.  In  polish,  grace,  and  beauty  they  are  far  from  equalling 
true  porcelain.  "Now,"  says  this  author,  writing  in  1815,  "they  make  nu- 
merous imitations  of  these  at  Canton."  M.  Salvetat,  in  a  foot-note,  states 
that  these  are  unquestionably  the  cloisonne  enamels,  and  it  would  appear 
from  this  that  the  art  of  making  them  in  China  is  quite  modern.  This 
Byzantine  art  has  never  been  lost  in  the  East.  It  is  still  practised  in 
various  localities.  Scabbards,  knife-cases,  and  various  articles  ornamented 
in  rude  but  brilliant  enamels,  are  common  enough  among  the  Persians 
and  Arabians.  The  Chinese  seem  to  have  taken  this  art  in  modern  times 
from  the  Mohammedans,  and  considerably  improved  its  execution.  The 
results,  however  curious,  are  rarely  beautiful,  although  they  have  been 
popular  in  Europe  and  America, 
and  specimens  have  been  sold  at 
high  prices.  i£^l§§Ss 

Ha 

II.-COREA. 

The  manufacture  of  porcelain 
seems  to  have  passed  from  China  to 
Japan  by  way  of  Corea,  and  this 
country  continued  to  make  it  until 
a  century  ago,  when  it  is  supposed 
the  industry  ceased.  Corean  porce- 
lains were  sent  to  Japan,  and  it  is 
probable  that  more  or  less  of  them 
came  to  Europe  among  the  early 
Dutch  importations.  It  is  exceed- 
ingly difficult    for   any  but    experts  1 50.  Corean  Water-pot.     (Jacquemart.; 


25G 


l'OliCELAIX. 


to  separate  specimens  from  those  of  Japan.  The  chief  characteristic  is 
the  extraordinary  purity  of  the  white  surface,  which  is  milky,  without  the 
hard  gleam  <>f  the  white  Japanese.  Few  colors  were  used.  The  red  is 
peculiar,  soft,  and  dead,  yet  very  rich  and  beautiful.  We  have  specimens 
in  which  no  colors  are  used  but  red  and  green,  the  latter  equally  tender 
and  fine  with  the  red.  Decorations  sometimes  include  Japanese  and  Chi- 
nese characteristics  on  the  same  piece,  and  are  rarely  complicated  in  pat- 
tern. The  Chinese  author  Tching-thing-kpuei,  treating  of  Corean  porce- 
lains, says  they  are  extremely  delicate.  lie  adds  that  those  ornamented 
with  branches  of  white  flowers  are  regarded  in  Corea  as  not  of  the  highest 
value.  Cups  in  gourd  form  and  vases  in  lion  form  are  thought  remark- 
able. No  marks  are  known.  A  cup  in  our  collection  has  on  the  bottom 
an  embossed  square,  but  the  enamel  has  filled  the  design,  if  any  was 
there,  so  that  no  signs  are  visible. 


III.-JAPAN. 

The  modern  manufactures  of  Japan  in  pottery  and  porcelain  have  at- 
tracted more  attention  and  are  more 
worthy  of  it  than  the  ancient.  To 
M.  Julien's  account  of  the  Chinese 
art  is  annexed  a  paper  by  Dr.  J. 
Hoffman,  of  Leyden,  giving  a  sketch 
of  the  manufactures  of  Japan,  from 
which,  as  well  as  from  the  occasion- 
al notes  of  travellers,  some  informa- 
tion has  been  gathered  on  the  sub- 
ject. But  of  the  history  and  com- 
parative antiquity  of  Japanese  por- 
celains very  little  is  known.  Dr. 
Hoffman's  authority  is  a  Japanese 
work  on  the  most  celebrated  land 
and  marine  products,  written  by 
Kimonra  Ko-kyo,  published  at  Okasaki  in  L799.  The  fifth  volume  con- 
tains an  account  of  porcelain.  The  chronicles  of  Japan  locate  the  origin 
of  porcelain-making  at  27  B.C.,  when  Coreans  came  to  Japan  and  estab- 
lished works.  This  was  not  far  distant  from  the  time  of  the  origin  in 
China,  according  to  Chinese  traditions.  The  art  may  have  passed  from 
China  to  Japan  through  Corea.  Such  is  the  general  opinion.  The  early 
works  of  Japan  were  not  equal  to  those  of  the   Chinese,  until  the  year 


K,7.  Japanese  Plate.     (Avery  Coll.) 


JAPAN.  257 

1211,  when  Katosiro  Ouyemou,  a  Japanese  potter,  went  to  China,  learned 
the  best  methods  in  use  there,  and  brought  them  back  to  Japan.  There- 
after the  Japanese  fabrics  advanced  in  elegance,  until  they  equalled,  and 
in  many  respects  surpassed,  the  Chinese.  The  principal,  and  in  general 
the  finest,  works  seem  to  have  been  always  those  of  Imari,  in  the  prov- 
ince of  Fizen,  or  IIizex.  Imari  is  the  port.  The  seats  of  the  potteries 
lie  in  the  interior  on  the  slopes  of  the  mountain  Idsoumiyama,  from  which 
the  clay  is  obtained.  These  potteries,  twenty  three  or  four  in  number, 
have  names  indicating  their  locations,  such  as  "  The  great  mountain  be- 
tween the  rivers,"  "  The  three  mountains  between  the  rivers,"  "  Beautiful 
upper  plain,"  "Middle  plain,"  "The  grotto,"  "Black  fields,"  etc. 

The  ware  of  the  province  of  Satsma,  or  Satsuma,  which  has  been 
brought  to  America  in  quantity  of  late  years,  is  a  faience  of  a  yellowish 
or  dirty  buff  color,  sometimes  dingy,  a  close,  hard  paste,  with  fire-cracked 
glaze,  the  decorations  in  flowers,  not  brilliant,  with  touches  and  lines  of 
gold.  These  decorations  seem  always  to  indicate  attempts  to  copy  Euro- 
pean art,  and  are  quite  different  in  style  from  the  old  Japanese.  Speci- 
mens said  to  be  old  present  no  evidence  of  age  except  a  greater  dinginess 
of  colors,  and  their  age  may  be  doubted.  Many  of  the  products  are  very 
ingenious  in  form,  and  odd  in  effect,  but  the  ware  has  little  to  commend 
it  either  in  beauty  or  in  national  characteristics.  The  possessor  of  Satsma 
specimens  must  handle  them  carefully,  as  they  are  fragile,  and  will  not 
stand  much  washing  with  water  and  soap,  or  hard  rubbing.  The  collector 
will  be  guided  in  selections  wholly  by  his  own  taste,  and  not  by  any  stand' 
ards  of  excellence.  All  notions  of  the  superior  beauty  of  this  or  that  speci- 
men of  Satsma  ware  are  purely  arbitrary,  and  the  novice  is  as  good  a  judge 
of  the  ware  as  the  most  experienced  collector. 

The  Kaga  or  Kutani  wares,  usually  decorated  in  brilliant  red,  with 
figures  in  black  and  other  colors,  are  very  effective,  and  by  the  Japanese 
as  well  as  by  some  European  and  American  collectors  are  highly  esteemed. 
This  ware  is  classed  as  porcelain  by  some  authorities;  but  specimens  are 
frequent  in  a  coarse,  hard  pottery,  while  others  are  certainly  porcelain. 

Okosaki  is  a  seat  of  noted  manufacture,  giving  to  the  Japanese  the 
word  mono-saki,  which  is  used  to  signify  porcelain  in  general.  It  is  spe- 
cially renowned  for  egg-shell  porcelain,  which  is  now  produced  with  all 
the  delicacy  of  the  ancient  Chinese,  but  without  the  old  splendor  of  enamel 
decoration.  Either  here,  or  elsewhere  in  Japan,  ingenious  manufacturers 
are  now  reproducing  with  great  skill  the  old  and  rare  porcelains  of  China, 
with  the  old  marks.  Reds,  yellows,  blues,  greens,  in  all  varieties,  old  cela- 
dons and  crackles,  Ming  Dynasty  blue  and  white  witli  the  six  marks:  in 

IT 


L\->8 


VORCELAIX. 


short,  everv  rare  color  decoration  of  the  old  times  is  now  reproduced  in 
Japan,  and  the  New  York  market  is  amply  supplied. 

IJaxko  produces  dark-brown  and  also  white  potteries,  usually  thin, 

without  glaze,  sometimes  Lav- 
ing patterns  impressed,  and 
flowers  painted  with  enamel. 
A  remarkable  variety  of  Ban- 
ko  ware  has  patterns  of  pure 
white  translucent  paste  set  in 
the  brown  pottery. 

Bisur  produces  lacquered 
porcelains.  The  lac  of  China 
and  Japan  is  the  gum  of  a 
tree  which  is  cultivated  for 
this  product. 

Awari  makes  fine  porce- 
lains of  small  sizes  exquisite- 
ly decorated. 

IIiradoson  makes  egg- 
shell porcelains. 

Kioto  and  Awata  produce 
a  great  variety  of  wares,  espe- 
cially a  class  somewhat  resem- 
bling Satsma  faience,  made  at 
Awata.  Kioto  was  the  an- 
cient capital. 

Sir  Rutherford  Alcock  de- 
scribes beautiful  pottery  with 
raised  decorations  of  fish. 
fruits,  etc.,  which  he  found  at 
(  )saca.  We  also  find  men- 
tion of  faience  made  at  Siiiba. 
Red  stone  -  wares  are 
among  the  most  beautiful  ce- 
ramic products  of  Japan.  These  are  of  fine  compact  paste,  the  color  va- 
rious dark  shades  of  brick  red.  The  relief  ornaments  on  these  wares  are 
often  very  finely  executed.  We  have  ewers  with  the  surface  engraved 
in  a  marvellous  imitation  of  bamboo;  tall,  square  tea-caddies  with  birds, 
flowers,  and  symbolic  designs  in  sharp  reliefs;  tea-pots,  round,  square. 
octagonal,  and  of  other  shapes. 


158.  Japanese  "  Mandarin  "  Vase,  decorated  in  gold  and 
colors.    (Jacquemart.) 


JAPAN. 


259 


The  old  porcelains  of  Japan  are  usually  whiter  and  more  pure  in  glaze 
than  those  of  China.  The  Nankin  blue  and  white  wares  have  always 
been  largely  reproduced  in  Japan.  The  Chinese  and  Japanese  have  for 
centuries  copied  and  imitated  each  other's  porcelains,  so  that  it  is  prac- 
tically impossible,  in  many  cases,  to  determine  whether  specimens  are  of 
one  or  the  other  fabric.  The  Dutch  importations  of  Japanese  porcelain, 
which  were  very  large,  went  into  the  European  markets  as  Oriental  ware, 
without  classification,  and  a  large  portion  of  the  specimens  in  our  collec- 
tions regarded  as  Chinese  are  probably  from  Japan. 

It  is  generally  supposed  that  the  oldest  known  Japanese  porcelains  are 
of  a  rather  coarse  paste,  the  glaze  bluish  white,  with  embossed  flowers 
colored  blue  and  red.  Others  regard  a  thin  porcelain,  fine  and  delicate, 
white  with  slight  color  decorations,  as  the  oldest.  The  collector,  however, 
will  find  it  impossible  to  determine  satisfactorily  the  age  of  specimens, 
even  when  marked,  from  the  fact  that  the  Japanese  reproduce  all  their 
old  works  with  wonderful  skill  and  exactness.  Their  modern  products, 
of  the  last  few  years,  surpass  in  elegance  and 
perfection  their  ancient  fabrics,  and  collectors 
will  do  well  to  be  guided  in  selections  by  their 
own  tastes,  without  reference  to  periods  of 
manufacture. 

Enamels  on  metal  of  China  and  Japan  are 
not  properly  within  the  scope  of  this  work.  A 
very  beautiful  modern  product  of  Japan  is  cloi- 
sonne enamel  on  porcelain  and  pottery  bodies. 
The  wires  which  form  the  cloisons  are  very 
thin,  and  the  enamels,  after  baking,  are  pol- 
ished down,  as  when  on  metal  bodies.  In 
selecting  specimens  a  close  examination  is  nec- 
essary, as  defects  are  often  found  which  have  been  carefully  filled  with 
wax,  or  some  other  substance,  and  colored.  From  what  has  been  said  of 
enamels  on  metal  in  China  it  may  be  inferred  that  Japanese  works  of  this 
class  are  comparatively  modern. 

Japanese  plates  and  some  other  articles  have  frequently  the  small  im- 
glazed  spots  on  the  bottom,  where  the  supports  held  them  in  the  baking. 
usually  known  as  support  marks.     These  are  not  found  on  Chinese  wares. 

When  the  Catholic  missionaries  were  in  Japan  much  porcelain  was  dec- 
orated with  Christian  subjects.  The  missionaries  were  expelled  in  1641. 
It  has  been  said  that  the  introduction  of  this  style  of  decoration  on  the 
porcelains  led  to  the  expulsion  and  the  massacre  of  the  native  Christians. 


150.  Japanese  Vase.  Relief  dec- 
orations :  oldest  style.  (T.  -  P. 
Coll.) 


260 


PORCELAIN. 


Marks  arc  more  rare  on  old  Japanese  porcelain  than  on  Chinese.  The 
system  of  dates  was  similar,  and  the  Table  of  Marks  furnishes  these. 
Names  of  factory  locations  and  of  potters  are  common  on  modern  wares. 
Our  knowledge  of  the  Japanese  marks  is  still  very  defective.  The  exten- 
sive lists  collected  by  Messrs.  Hooper  and  Phillips,  and  reproduced  in  the 
Table  of  Marks,  are  largely  from  modern  wares. 


IV.-INDIA. 

Among  the  porcelains  which  have  been  brought  to  Europe  and  Amer- 
ica during  the  long  continuance  of  trade  with  the  nations  on  the  Pacific 
and  Indian  oceans,  are  many  which  it  is  found  exceedingly  difficult  to 

classify.     In  character  of 


paste  they  resemble  the 
Chinese,  but  in  decoration 
there  is  so  great  a  differ- 
ence, and  such  marked 
peculiarity,  that  we  have 
been  accustomed  to  place 
them  as  of  some  unknown 
Asiatic  fabric.  A  bowl 
has  a  soft  celadon -green 
ground,  on  which  from 
the  foot  rise  perpendicu- 
lar stalks  bearing  margue- 
rites in  white  enamel,  with 


160.  Ii 


(Jacquemart.) 

flowers  and  leaves  in  rich  color  branching  with  regularity  from  these  per- 
pendicular stems.  On  other  specimens  the  style  of  flower  decoration  re- 
sembles that  on  Persian  stuffs.  This  peculiarity  of  perpendicular  stalks 
or  rows  of  flowers  and  leaves  is  somewhat  characteristic.  These  specimens 
are  usually  classed  as  Chinese,  and  are  found  more  or  less  in  all  collections 
of  Oriental  porcelains.  M.  Jacquemart  attributes  them  with  confidence 
to  India,  and  maintains  the  existence  of  a  large  class  of  porcelains,  the  act- 
ual fabric  of  that  country,  obtained  in  commerce  at  Pondicherry.  The  il- 
lustration (  L60)  is  given  by  him  as  a  characteristic  specimen. 

In  treating  of  Persian  potteries  we  have  already  indicated  the  neces- 
sity for  more  light  on  the  history  of  ceramic  art  in  Central  Asia.  In- 
dia, China,  and  Persia  had  early  relations  with  one  another  in  this  fabric, 
and  future  discoveries  may  throw  light  on  the  nature  of  these  relations. 
Glazed  pottery  of  very  ancient  character  has  been  found  in  Northern  In- 


INDIA.— ITALY.  201 


dia,  the  decorations  of  which,  in  blue  and  other  colors,  are  not  Chinese. 
Old  fragments  of  architectural  work  are  known,  enamelled  or  glazed,  in 
brilliant  colors,  having  red  marguerites  with  yellow  hearts,  meander  bor- 
ders, columns  of  arabesques  with  flowers,  trilobed  leaves  in  foliage,  fan- 
tastic birds  holding  reptiles,  dragons'  heads,  a  monster  head,  with  fearful 
eyes,  crowned  with  a  Brahmin ic  mitre. 

The  date  of  these  is  unknown.  But  at  a  later  period  Persian  art  came 
into  India,  with  wall  tiles,  and  faience  resembling  the  Damascus  wares. 
The  history  of  these  potteries  is  also  in  obscurity.  Brongniart  describes 
the  modern  potteries  of  Chandernagor,  Karical,  Calcutta,  and  Pegu,  which 
are  without  glaze. 

The  common  phrase  "India  ware"  does  not  refer  to  porcelains  of  II in- 
dostan.  It  arose  from  the  custom  of  so  calling  porcelains  brought  by  the 
East  India  companies  to  Europe ;  and  in  America,  in  common  usage,  this 
expression  applies  to  the  blue  and  white  porcelains  of  Canton  and  Nan- 
kin, and  Japanese  products  in  imitation  of  them. 

V.-ITALY. 

Early  in  the  sixteenth  century,  when  stanniferous  enamel  had  come 
into  general  use  in  Italy,  the  attention  of  the  potters  and  their  patrons 
was  directed  towards  translucent  wares,  specimens  of  which  were  knowm. 
Their  superior  value,  on  account  of  the  strength  as  well  as  beauty  of  the 
fabric,  made  it  manifest  that  the  discovery  of  the  art  of  producing  them 
would  be  profitable.  Their  composition  was  a  mystery  in  Europe,  nor  was 
the  material  known  by  any  distinctive  name,  although  it  was  called  porce- 
lain. The  finer  classes  of  pottery  made  in  Italy  were  also  called  por- 
zellana.  The  Chinese  wares  had  come,  in  occasional  specimens,  to  Europe, 
and  were  objects  of  curious  art,  prized  by  their  possessors,  as  we  know 
from  Scaliger,  who  mentions  them  among  the  treasures  of  his  old  family. 
There  had  been  extensive  trade  between  China  and  the  Arabian  coasts  for 
many  centuries,  and  the  Persian  porcelains  were  often  close  copies  of  the 
Chinese.  The  Saracens  had  probably  introduced  specimens  to  Italy  in 
the  Middle  Ages.     But  they  were  very  rare. 

It  has  been  by  some  supposed  that  the  vasa  murrhina  of  the  ancient 
Bomans,  which  Pliny  (73  a.d.)  described  as  coming  from  Asia,  were  Chi- 
nese porcelain.  But  he  locates  their  origin  at  Caramania,  in  Persia;  and  if 
porcelain,  they  were  probably  of  Persian  fabric.  It  seems,  however,  more 
probable  that  these  were  cut  from  fluor  spar,  exquisite  varieties  of  which 
are  found  in  Persia,  and  are  there  carved  into  bowls  and  cups  of  wonder- 


262  PORCELAIN. 


ful  beauty.  "We  have  specimens,  obtained  in  Western  Asia,  whose  pecul- 
iarities of  changeable  color  in  different  lights  are  marvellously  fine.  The 
subject  lias  been  much  discussed,  one  of  the  chief  points  of  interest  in 
connection  with  it  being  the  fact  that  Propertius  (iv.,  5)  speaks  of  "myr- 
rliine  goblets  baked  in  Parthian  furnaces,"  an  expression  which,  if  Ave 
should  attribute  to  the  Roman  writer  a  critical  knowledge  of  the  subject, 
would  tend  to  confirm  the  theory  of  the  making  of  porcelain  in  the  heart 
of  Asia  at  as  early  a  date  as  in  China.  Some  enthusiastic  writers  in  the 
seventeenth  century  went  so  far  as  to  consider  the  question  whether  the 
drink  offered  to  the  dying  Lord  by  the  Roman  soldiers  (Mark  xv.,  23), 
la/uivpiua/iiivov  otvov,  "  wine  mingled  with  myrrh,"  was  not  in  reality  wine 
in  a  myrrhine  cup,  basing  the  idea  on  Pliny's  unintelligible  statement  that 
the  myrrhine  cups  had  a  peculiar  odor. 

But  the  potters  of  Italy  and  their  patrons  had  more  interest  in  the 
commercial  value  of  porcelain  than  in  its  history.  They  desired  to  know 
how  it  was  made.  Many  stories  had  been  told  of  its  composition.  Marco 
Polo  had  described  the  porcelains  which  he  saw  in  China  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  and  professed  to  relate  the  process  of  making  them.  He  said  the 
clay  was  exposed  for  thirty  or  forty  years  to  the  weather,  thus  becom- 
ing purified,  and  that  those  who  collected  it  did  so  for  their  children  or 
grandchildren.  This  story  was  varied  and  enlarged  upon  by  subsequent 
writers.  Some  said  the  clay,  others  the  vases  themselves,  were  buried  in 
the  ground  a  hundred  years.  From  this  fable  a  distinguished  British  lex- 
icographer was  led  to  assign  the  derivation  of  "  porcelain  "  to  the  French 
words  pour  cent  annees.  But  porzellana  in  Italian  and  pourceUai/ne  in 
French  seem  to  have  been  words  for  a  long  time  applied  to  other  potteries 
before  they  were  specifically  attached  to  translucent  wares. 

The  Portuguese  traders  began  to  bring  the  Chinese  wares  into  Europe 
in  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  century ;  but  before  any  had  come  from 
them  to  Italy  the  Italians  were  acquainted  with  specimens  received  from 
Egypt  or  Asia,  and  were  seeking  the  knowledge  of  their  composition. 

The  researches  of  the  Marquis  Campori  into  the  history  of  ceramic 
art  in  Ferrara  have  resulted  in  bringing  to  light  much  interesting  mate- 
rial concerning  the  first  porcelains  of  Italy  and  of  Europe.  In  an  old 
book  of  expenses  of  the  Grand  Duke  Alphonso  I.  of  Ferrara,  while  at 
Venice  in  1504,  is  an  entry  of  Lre  2:3;  \>a\dper  schudelle  sette  deporeelana 
contirefacta  e  a  n<>  /><>r/tale  a  la  chatalana.  Fifteen  years  later,  in  1519,  is 
found  a  letter  to  the  duke  from  Tebaldi,  his  ambassador  at  Venice,  which 
describes  as  accompanying  it  a  small  plate  and  scutella  (ecuelle?)  of  por- 
celain sent  by  the  master  from  whom  they  had  been  ordered.     Tebaldi 


ITALY.  263 

adds  that  the  master  declines  to  make  any  more,  saying  that  he  does  not 
wish  to  throw  away  his  time  and  his  money ;  if  the  dnke  will  furnish  the 
money,  he  will  give  his  time;  hut  he  declines  to  accept  the  duke's  invita- 
tion to  remove  to  Ferrara,  che  'l  e  troppo  al  tempo,  he  is  too  old.  From 
these  it  appears  evident  that  the  Venetian  master  had  found  the  secret, 
and  had  for  fifteen  years  made  more  or  less  porcelain.  Whether  it  was 
hard  or  soft  paste  is  not  known.  It  does  not  appear  that  the  duke  agreed 
to  advance  the  money,  and  the  old  man,  the  first  maker  of  porcelain  in 
Europe,  died  unknown,  and  the  secret  perished  with  him.  No  certain 
specimens  of  his  work  are  now  known.  A  few  nnassigned  pieces  exist, 
which  are  suspected  to  be  either  of  this  fabric  or  of  Ferrara,  where  we 
next  hear  of  the  art. 

Maestro  Camillo,  of  Urbino,  an  artist  working  at  Ferrara,  was  killed 
in  1567  by  the  explosion  of  a  cannon.  (This  of  course  was  not  Camillo 
Fontana.)  In  connection  with  his  brother  Battista,  he  had  been  engaged 
in  seeking  to  make  porcelain,  and  after  his  death  Battista  continued  and 
>seems  to  have  perfected  the  process.  An  entry  in  the  accounts  of  1569 
of  extra  wine  for  a  workman  preparing  materials  per  far  porcellani,  and 
the  apparent  agreement  of  Italian  writers  of  the  period,  and  of  the  next 
century,  leave  little  doubt  of  the  successful  result  of  the  experiments  at 
Ferrara.  It  was  not  till  the  attention  of  the  Marquis  Campori  was  drawn 
to  the  subject  by  the  discovery  of  the  Medicean  porcelain  that  these  im- 
portant indications  of  the  history  of  the  art  were  rescued  from  obscurity. 

At  the  same  time  or  soon  after  Camillo  was  experimenting  in  Fer- 
rara, the  Grand  Duke  Francis  I.  of  Tuscany  had  artists  employed  in  a  lab- 
oratory in  Florence,  seeking  the  same  result.  Vasari  ascribes  the  discov- 
ery here  to  Bernardo  Buontalenti.  A  few  years  ago,  Dr.  Foresi,  of  Flor- 
ence, had  collected  specimens  of  a  peculiar  porcelain,  heavy,  grayish  in 
color,  and  decorated  in  pale  blue,  on  which  the  mark  was  a  dome  over  the 
letter  F.  Dr.  Foresi's  researches  into  the  history  of  these  specimens  led 
to  the  discovery  that  they  were  the  product  of  Florence,  and  a  specimen 
was  found  bearing  another  mark,  the  six  balls  of  the  arms  of  the  Medici, 
on  each  of  which  balls  was  a  letter,  thus,  F  M  M  E  D  II,  signifying 
"  Franciscus  Medici  Magnus  Etruriae  Dux  Secundus."  The  grand  duke's 
experiments  were  progressing  from  1575  to  15S7,  and  in  1581  they  were 
so  far  successful  that  porcelain  was  made. 

The  Medicean  porcelain  is  classed  as  soft  paste,  because  it  is  not  a  true 
hard-paste  or  kaolinic  porcelain.  The  composition,  however,  includes  an 
Italian  clay  which  is  kaolinic,  and  the  presence  of  this  material,  as  in  por- 
celains of  England,  makes  a  resulting  ware  which  Brongniart  classed  as 


204  PORCELAIN. 


hybrid  or  mixed  porcelain.     Specimens  are  rare,  only  about  thirty  being 
known. 

One  of  the  finest  is  a  large  bowl,  in  the  Castellani  collection  (111.  161), 
decorated  in  blue,  and  bearing  the  dome  and  F  mark.  The  border  deco- 
ration is  in  Japanese  style.  An  interesting  comment  was  elicited  from 
Japanese  experts,  Shioda  Mashasi  and  Ishita  Tametake,  to  whom  the  bowl 


101.  Bowl:  Medicean  porcelain.     (Castellani  Coll.) 

was  submitted  by  Mr.  Barnet  Phillips,  at  the  Philadelphia  Exhibition  in 
1876.  Mr.  Phillips,  in  a  valuable  article  on  this  specimen,  contributed  to 
the  Art  Journal,  says: 

Mr.  Shioda  Mashasi,  who,  according'  to  the  testimony  of  various  members  of  the 
Japanese  Commission,  was  considered  as  most  distinguished  in  his  knowledge  of 
porcelain  making  and  decoration,  unhesitatingly  declared  the  peculiar  ornamenta- 
tion on  both  pieces  to  be  Japanese,  and  gave  the  time  when  such  designs  were  in 
vogue  in  Japan,  which  belonged,  so  he  stated,  "to  a  style  in  use  towards  the  middle 
and  close  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  which  had  long  ago  passed  out  of  fashion, 
but  which  had  been  brought  into  vogue  by  Gorodayu  Shonsui,  a  native  of  Ise,  who 
had  gone  to  China  for  the  purpose  of  acquiring  knowledge  in  porcelain-making,  and 
that  Shonsui  had  exercised  his  calling  at  Uizen,  in  Japan,  from  1525  to  1540."     Ap- 


ITALY.  265 

parently  to  clinch  the  matter,  the  Japanese  expert,  leaving  Memorial  Hall,  where  the 
Castellani  collection  was  exhibited,  went  to  the  Main  Building,  in  the  Japanese  de- 
partment, and,  unlocking  a  case  containing  a  choice  assemblage  of  porcelain  and 
pottery  selected  for  the  South  Kensington  Museum,  chose  a  couple  of  pieces  of  old 
Japanese  porcelain  having  on  them  similar  decorations  to  those  on  the  Medicean 
porcelain,  even  to  the  flutings  and  the  peculiar  treatment  employed  in  shading 
them.  "  These  pieces  made  by  Gorodayu  Shonsni,"  said  Mr.  Shioda  Mashasi,  "  are 
precisely  like  those  you  have  just  shown  me.  As  to  decoration,  they  are  the  same. 
This  mark  at  the  bottom  of  our  own  porcelain  indicates  the  maker — the  meaning 
of  which  is  '  happiness.'  There  is  a  mistake  in  our  catalogue,  which  may  give  rise 
to  some  error.  The  period  of  Gorodayu  Shonsui  is  put  down  there  as  between 
1580  and  1590  of  your  time:  it  should  have  been  from  1525  to  1540.  The  dates 
I  give  you  are  positive.  Your  Italian  porcelain -makers  possibly  acquired  our 
methods  of  manufacture ;  what  is  quite  certain  is  this,  that  they  copied  our  old 
style  of  ornaments."  A  careful  comparison  of  the  pieces  of  Japanese  with  the  Ital- 
ian porcelain  was  quite  convincing.  The  material  of  the  Oriental  piece  was  of  bet- 
ter composition.  The  decoration,  save  that  the  Japanese  work  was  of  a  darker 
blue,  was  quite  the  same. 

Mr.  Phillips  adds : 

We  believe  that  the  presence  of  Japanese  in  Italy  may  have  had  a  direct  influ- 
ence not  only  on  the  ornamentation,  but  on  the  production,  of  this  Medicean  porce- 
lain. It  is  well  known  that  in  1564  numerous  Christian  churches  existed  in  Japan, 
and  that  as  many  as  150,000  converts  were  made.  In  1581  several  princes  in  Kiu- 
shu  adopted  Christianity,  and  in  this  same  year  a  Japanese  embassy,  led  by  Father 
Valignani,  sailed  for  Italy,  to  pay  homage  to  Pope  Gregory  XIII.  Owing  to  diffi- 
culties and  delays,  these  Japanese  envoys  only  reached  the  Eternal  City  in  1585, 
and,  Gregory  being  dead,  they  paid  their  court  to  Gregory's  successor,  Sixtus  V. 
Quite  a  number  of  years  before  this,  intercourse  between  Japan  and  Portugal  had 
been  frequent.  Kampfer,  who  liked  to  trace  race-resemblances  and  the  affinities  of 
people,  recalls  the  fact  that  an  interchange  of  methods  of  manufacture  existed  be- 
tween the  race  coming  from  remote  Indian  islands  and  the  people  of  Southern 
Europe. 

This  recognition  of  the  decorations  by  the  Japanese  experts  is  exceed- 
ingly interesting.  But  we  cannot  agree  with  the  suggestion  that  the  pro- 
duction of  the  porcelain  was  due  to  immediate  Japanese  influence.  It  is 
probable  that  porcelain  had  been  made  at  Ferrara  a  few  years  before  the 
Medicean  laboratory  produced  it.  The  experiments  in  the  two  places  may 
have  been  synchronous.  Venice  had  without  doubt  made  it  early  in  the 
sixteenth  century.  It  was  an  object  much  desired  in  Italy,  and  this  de- 
sire was,  of  course,  prompted  by  the  presence  of  examples  of  the  Oriental 


266 


FORCE  LA  IX. 


wares.  The  copies  of  Japanese  decorations  may  have  been  made  from 
original  examples,  or  from  copies  on  Persian  porcelains,  brought  into  Italy 
by  the  Saracens. 

Great  interest  attaches  to  the  other  decoration.  The  centre  of  the 
bowl  is  occupied  by  a  monochrome  picture.  This  has  usually  been  re- 
garded as  St.  Mark,  attended  by  the  lion,  whose  paw  rests  on  a  tablet  bear- 
ing the  letters  P  G  in  monogram.  Tt  has  been  suggested  that  these  let- 
ters are  the  initials  of  Giulio  Pippi,  known  as  Giulio  Romano.  lie  had 
died  at  Mantua  in  1546,  but  he  may  have  left  a  painting  from  which  this 
is  a  copy.  lie  had  never,  so  far  as  is  known,  used  these  letters  as  his  sig- 
nature. The  style  of  the  work  on  the  bowl  is  wholly  unlike  that  of  any 
painter  on  majolica,  and  it  belongs  to  a  much  higher  order  of  art  than 
most  of  the  majolica  decorations. 

At  the  date  of  this  porcelain  the  fine  period  of  Italian  pottery  was 
ended.  A  new  artist  here  begins  a  new  line  of  art,  which  had  a  magnifi- 
cent succession  in  the  porcelain  decorations  of  Sevres,  Dresden,  Capo-di- 
Monte,  and  a  hundred  modern  factories.  He  was  a  worthy  leader,  for  his 
work  is  very  fine.  Who  was  this  first  of  European  porcelain  decorators '( 
His  style  is  clearly  that  of  one  accustomed  to  engraving,  or  preparing  the 
monochrome  designs  wrhich  are  used  by  copperplate  engravers.  For  some 
time  we  believed  that  wre  had  found  his  work,  or  its  inspiration,  in  the 

large  coarse  wood -cuts  of  an  Italian  Josephus, 
published  at  Venice,  1604.  The  wood-blocks  in 
this  edition  are  worm-holed,  indicating  the  exist- 
ence of  an  earlier  edition.  The  portrait  of  Judas 
the  Essene  in  this  book  has  curious  similarities  to 
the  figure  on  the  porcelain.  But  these  cuts  are 
not  signed,  and  do  not  help  to  any  knowledge  of 
the  P.  G.  Next,  however,  we  discovered  the  orig- 
inal copperplate  engraving  of  which  the  picture 
on  the  bowl  is  a  repetition.  It  is  in  a  book, 
"  Epistole  et  Evangeli,"  published  at  Venice  in 
1675,  nearly  a  hundred  years  after  the  porcelain, 
[mile  of  old  Italian  wood-  This  book  is  copiously  illustrated  with  old  cop- 
cut-  perplates,  bought  up  for  the  purpose,  and  had 

been  preserved  on  our  shelves  only  because  of  two  of  these,  which  we 
had  marked  as  uncatalogued  works  of  eminent  engravers  of  the  sixteenth  . 
century.      One,  an  engraving  5  by  6f  inches,  is  the  original  of  the  design 
on  the  bowl  in  the  minutest  respects,  only  that  the   tablet  held  by  the 
lion  is  blank.     Again,  we  do  not  find  any  help  to  know  the  meaning  of 


162.  Judas   the  Essene.     Fac- 


ITALY. 


267 


163.  Fac- simile   of   Engraving. 
Original  of  the  Medicean  bowl. 


P.  Gr.  The  wood-cut  and  the  copperplate  are  here  given  (Ills.  162, 163) 
reproduced  (for  the  New  York  Nation)  in  small  size  by  photographic 
process.  The  engraving  is  signed,  in  the  lower 
left-hand  corner,  with  the  monogram  given  below, 
which  may  be  either  of  Marc  Antonio  Raimon- 
di,  Giorgio  Ghisi  (Mantuano),  Antonio  of  Trent 
(Fantuzzi),  or  Antonio  Salamanca,  a  well-known 
dealer  in  and  retoucher  of  old  plates.  Innumer- 
able conjectures  arise  here.  Fantuzzi  was  a  pu- 
pil of  Grirolamo  Mazzola  (Parmigiano),  who  paint- 
ed the  Vision  of  St.  Jerome,  whose  name  he  bore. 
Did  Parmigiano  paint  this  also  ?  And  did  Fan- 
tuzzi engrave  it  from  his  work,  and  place  it  on 
the  plate  with  G.  P.  ?  Did  George  Ghisi  or 
Marc  Antonio  repeat  it  from  Giulio  Pippi  %  We 
have  no  doubt  that  one  of  the  great  engravers, 
or  some  one  accustomed  to  prepare  copies  of  paintings  for  them  in  mono- 
chrome, executed  the  bowl.  Iiaimondi  was  dead  nearly 
\l  K  J     r  ^y  years  before  it  was  painted.     Shall  we  fall  back  on 

tv\   fV*      Ghisi,  to  whom,  indeed,  we  are  inclined  to  attribute  the 
original  engraving  % 

The  subject  is  always  called  St.  Mark.  From  the  position  of  the  fig- 
ure, seated  on  rolling  clouds,  from  the  appearance  of  the  lion,  expressing 
distinctly  affection  and  companionship,  and  by  no  means  looking  like  a 
mere  emblem  or  symbol,  we  have  suspected  it  to  be  a  representation  of  St. 
Jerome,  who  is  eminently  regarded  in  the  Church  as  the  Father  or  Preach- 
er of  the  Judgment.  The  idea  receives  confirmation  from  the  position  of 
the  plate  in  our  volume  of  the  Gospels  and  Epistles,  where  it  appears  oppo- 
site to  the  Gospel  for  the  first  Sunday  in  Advent  (Luke  xxi.),  which  fore- 
tells the  terrors  of  coming  doom.  Is  it  just  possible  that  the  letters  P.  G. 
were  placed  by  the  decorator  on  the  blank  tablet  of  the  engraving  he  was 
copying,  to  say  that  this  figure,  seated  on  and  surrounded  by  dark  clouds 
and  writing  in  a  book,  represents  the  Preacher  of  the  Judgment,  Grirolamo 
Padre  ?  The  subject  is  so  full  of  interest  in  the  history  of  art  that  any 
suggestion,  however  wild,  is  worth  considering. 

Whoever  he  was,  the  first  European  artist  on  porcelain  must  for  the 
present  rest  unknown  with  the  first  European  inventor  of  porcelain,  the 
old  man  of  Venice,  who  was  too  old  to  leave  home  and  win  wealth  and 
fame,  while  we  pass  on  to  a  history  more  modern  and  better  preserved. 

The  porcelain  art  was  lost  at  Florence  almost  as  soon  as  discovered, 


•ji;s 


rORCELAIX. 


and  did  not  reappear  in  Italy  for  more  than  a  century.  The  faience- 
makers  of  Castelli  and  Naples  were  producing  their  work,  the  last  of  the 
long  series  of  Italian  majolica,  when  Charles  III.  was  induced  to  found 
the  Capo-di-Monte  porcelain  factory  at  Naples.  That  it  grew  out  of  a 
faience  pottery  is  highly  probable,  and  it  is  said  to  have  produced  fai- 
ence. But  its  triumphs  were  in  soft -paste  porcelain,  which  it  began  to 
make  about  1736.  Whence  the  workmen  derived  their  knowledge  of  the 
art  does  not  appear,  and  it  is  by  some  supposed  to  have  been  an  indepen- 
dent discovery,  like  that  at  St.  Cloud,  in  France.  The  king  took  great 
pride  in  it,  working  with  his  own  hands  in  the  factory. 
and  encouraging  the  production  of  good  commercial 
wares  for  the  use  of  his  subjects.  On  the  accession 
of  Ferdinand  IV.,  in  1759,  the  second  period  of  the 
works  commenced.  In  the  annual  fairs  held  in  the 
palace  square,  a  booth  was  devoted  to  the  porcelain  ; 
and  the  king  took  great  interest  in  the  daily  reports 
of  sales,  which  were  brought  to  him  with  the  names 
of  purchasers.  The  factory  continued  in  successful 
operation  till  1821,  when  it  was  closed.  In  1759  it 
had  sent  a  colony  of  workmen  to  Madrid  to  establish 
there  the  Buen  Retiro  factory. 
Fair  specimens  of  porcelains  of  Capo-di-Monte  are  not  rare.  Naples 
and  the  neighborhood  abound  in  the  oldest  as  well  as  the  more  recent 
work.  Great  quantities  were  produced  for  use  in  Italian  houses,  and  are 
plenty  in  the  bric-a-brac  shops.  The  fine  specimens,  as  of  all  factories,  are 
rare.  Those  made  in  the  second  period,  after  1760,  decorated  with  col- 
ored reliefs,  are  less  common,  having  been  produced  for  the  more  wealthy 
purchasers.  These  have  been  extensively  reproduced  at  Florence,  where 
the  Doccia  factory,  having  bought  the  old  moulds  of  Capo-di-Monte,  has 
constantly  made  imitations,  retaining  the  Capo  mark.  Dresden  and  other 
factories  have  also  imitated  them.  Fine  specimens,  especially  those  deco- 
rated with  colored  reliefs,  are  costly.  The  latter  include  exquisite  shell 
and  flower  work,  as  well  as  groups  of  figures  in  mythological  and  other 
scenes,  which,  on  pieces  of  larger  size,  are  exquisitely  moulded,  and  deli- 
cately painted  and  gilded.  On  smaller  objects  the  relief  decorations  are 
not  always  sharp,  though  invariably  tasteful  in  color.  The  Doccia  counter- 
feits are  usually  more  gaudy,  and  the  porcelain  is  tliicker  and  more  milky. 
Among  small  pieces,  especially  cups  and  saucers,  decorated  only  with 
paintings,  many  equal  or  surpass,  in  delicacy  and  perfection  of  work,  the 
finest  productions  of  Sevres  or  Dresden.      Considered  as  a  whole,  the 


164.  Cup  and  Saucer. 
(Capo-di-Monte.  T.- 
P.  Coll.) 


ITALY.  269 

Capo -di- Monte  painted  porcelains,  cheap  and  expensive,  rank  in  taste, 
beauty,  and  artistic  tinish  above  those  of  any  other  European  factory. 

Large  objects,  especially  plaques  for  wall  use,  with  colored  reliefs,  are 
superb  products  of  art,  wholly  unrivalled  elsewhere.  A  room  in  the  pal- 
ace at  Portici  was  covered  with  plaques  painted  richly,  and  bordered  with 
reliefs  of  flowers,  squirrels,  monkeys,  and  birds.  The  mirror-frames  and 
chandeliers  were  also  of  porcelain. 

The  stippled  character  of  flesh-painting  in  Capo-di-Monte  work,  usu- 
ally referred  to  as  a  means  of  identification,  while  characteristic,  must  not 
be  depended  on.  We  have  seen  fine  work  of  this  factory  without  the 
stippling,  and  fine  Dresden  work  stippled  in  the  Capo  style. 

Figures  and  groups  were  made  at  Capo-di-Monte  of  very  great  beauty. 
These  are  found  in  pure  white,  and  in  colors.  The  knobs  of  large  table- 
tureens  and  other  dishes  were  often  in  figures,  and  many  of  these  are  ad- 
mirable specimens  of  moulding.  The  early  mark  of  a  fleur-de-lis  was 
also  used  at  Buen  Retire.  Its  form  varies  on  different  specimens.  The 
crowned  N  mark  is  sometimes  stencilled  backward. 

The  Marquis  Ginori  founded  a  porcelain  factory  at  La  Doccia,  his 
villa,  not  far  from  Florence,  in  1737.  It  was  a  private  enterprise,  and 
has  since  remained  in  the  Ginori  family.  Great  attention  has  always  been 
paid  to  the  artistic  character  of  its  work,  and  the  products  have  been  in  all 
varieties — vases,  figures,  groups,  large  and  small,  and  the  customary  ser- 
vices and  table  wares.  Accomplished  modellers  and  artists  have  been 
employed  at  all  times. 

Long  ago  the  factory  became  possessed  of  the  Capo-di-Monte  moulds, 
and  has  since  reproduced  the  relief  wares  of  that  factory,  with  the  mark ; 
and,  in  addition  to  good  original  art,  the  factory  has  imitated  various  other 
fabrics.  The  early  figures  of  Doccia,  in  white,  occasionally  somewhat  yel- 
lowish in  glaze,  are  extraordinary  specimens  of  moulding.  The  products 
are  in  both  soft  and  hard  paste  porcelain,  and  also  in  a  hybrid  porcelain, 
midway  in  paste  between  pottery  and  porcelain,  called  terraglia.  Pieces 
in  this  ware,  decorated  in  blue,  resemble  the  Oriental. 

Venice. — We  have  seen  that  Venice  produced  the  first  porcelain  made 
in  Europe,  so  far  as  is  now  known.  But  the  lost  art  was  not  revived  till 
the  eighteenth  century.  In  1726,  a  porcelain  factory  was  in  existence  in 
Venice,  as  appears  by  a  mark,  Vena  a.g  1726,  on  a  soft-paste  saucer,  deco- 
rated with  arms.  This  was  probably  the  work  of  the  Vezzi  brothers,  who 
were  of  a  family  of  goldsmiths,  and  were  ennobled  by  the  senate  in  1716. 
They  established  a  porcelain  factory,  probably  about  1726;  but  little  is 
known  of  its  work. 


270 


rOIiCELAIX. 


Specimens  in  paste  of  varying  hardness  are  known,  of  which  the  deco- 
rations are  frequently  in  red  lines,  forming  geometric  patterns,  enclosing 
figures  and  landscapes.  The  later  Venetian  factory  under  Cozzi  produced 
similar  decorations,  but  Sir  W.  It.  Drake  attributes  the  older  wares  to  the 
Vezzi,  and  says  they  have  the  edges,  and  occasionally  the  handles,  covered 
with  silver  or  platina,  "  producing  the  effect  of  oxidized  metal  settings." 
He  also  describes  two  cups  and  saucers  of  hard  paste,  the  decoration  re- 
sembling the  best  Dresden.  On  one  of  the  saucers  is  the  Dresden  mono- 
gram,  A.  JR.;  but  one  cup  and  saucer  are  both  marked  Vena,  with  the  letter 
M  impressed,  while  the  other  cup  and  saucer  are  also  marked  Ven"  in  red, 
and  on  the  saucer  are  the  letters  m.  c.  over  the  letter  A  engraved  in  the 
paste.  Other  specimens  marked  Ven"  are  known,  with  decorations  in  fig- 
ures and  flowers,  birds,  arabesques,  etc.,  and  this  mark  is  now  assigned  to 
the  Vezzi  fabric.  The  peculiar  red  of  Venice  can  be  recognized  on  these, 
as  on  the  works  of  Cozzi. 

To  the  same  factory  are  attributed  decorations  of  borders  in  diaper- 
work,  black  and  colored,  with  small  gilt  points  on  crosses  at  the  intersec- 
tions of  the  lines.     These  are  chiefly  table  wares  in  hard  paste. 

The  Vezzi  factory  probably  ceased  about  1740.     In  1757,  a  grant  was 


made  to  Hewelcke  &  Co.  of  the  right  to 
make  porcelain,  but  it  does  not  appear  that 
they  made  any.  In  1761,  Domenico  Cozzi 
experimented  in  making  imitations  of  Ori- 
ental porcelain ;  and  this  factory,  success- 
fully established,  continued  till  1812.  Some 
of  Cozzi's  work  is  remarkably  fine.  He 
made  decorated  copies  of  Oriental  porce- 
lains;  his  red,  green,  and  blue,  and  his  gild- 
ing, being  specially  rich.  Good  figures,  in 
biscuit  and  in  colors,  were  produced. 

All  the  Venetian  porcelain-makers   pro- 
duced both  hard  and  soft  paste.     In  examin- 
ing marked  specimens  of  Venice,  care  must 
L65.  Venice  Cup  and  Saucer:  Cozzi  be   taken    to    distinguish    the    anchor   mark 
P^iod     Decoration  in  red.    (T,   f  gimilar  k  d      t    Che]  in 

1.  (  oil.) 

England,  and  at  other  factories. 

To    Nove    Antonibon    brought    a   Dresden    workman    in    1752,  and 

thereafter  made  hard  and  soft  paste  porcelain  of  high  character  until  1802, 

when  the  works  were  leased  to  Baroni,  who  also   made   some  charming 

ware,  but,  after  a  few  years,  suspended.      From  1825  to  1835,  Gio.  Bat- 


SPAIN  AND   PORTUGAL. 


271 


tista  Antonibon  and  his  son  revived  the  works,  but  since  1835  have  made 
only  faience. 

Soft-paste  porcelain  was  made  at  Tkeviso  in  the  latter  part  of  the  last 
century  by  the  brothers  G.  and  A.  Fontebasso,  whose  marks,  G.  A.  F.  F. 
and  F.  F.,  occur  on  pieces,  as  also  Treviso. 

At  Turin  (Vinovo),  about  1770,  Professor  Gioanetti,  or  Giovanetto, 
established  a  factory  of  soft-paste  porcelain.  The  marks  are  a  cross,  in 
the  paste  or  in  color,  sometimes  with  V,  or  V  N  and  other  letters.  The 
products  were  tasteful  in  shape  and  decoration. 


VI.-SPAIN   AND   PORTUGAL. 

Charles  III.  brought  to  Madrid  workmen  and  materials  from  the 
Capo-di-Monte  factory  at  Na- 
ples in  1759,  and  founded  the 
celebrated  Buen  Retiro  facto- 
ry of  hard  and  soft  paste  porce- 
lains and  other  ceramic  wares, 
which  was  sometimes  called  La 
China.  Removing  from  Naples 
to  Madrid,  on  his  accession  to 
the  crown  of  Spain,  the  king, 

i    ,i  ii  166.  Jardiniere:  Buen  Retire  porcelain.     (Marrvat.) 

and  the  queen  as  well,  seem  to  v       J    ' 

have  had  such  interest  in  ceramic  art  that  they  determined  to  foster  it  in 
Spain.  The  result  was  the  establishment  of  one  of  the  most  noted  fabrics 
of  Europe.  The  director,  Bonicelli,  proceeded  immediately  to  examine 
the  earths  of  Spain ;  and  so  soon  as  the  workmen,  artists,  and  materials 
had  arrived,  buildings  were  erected  in  the  Buen  Retiro  Gardens,  under  the 
direction  of  the  royal  architect,  Don  Carlos  Antonio  de  Bourbon,  who  is 
said  to  have  been  a  black  slave,  who  had  been  educated  by  the  royal  fam- 
ily at  Naples.  The  buildings  were  completed  in  1760,  and  the  work  estab- 
lished with  great  secrecy,  no  strangers  being  admitted.  Porcelains  were 
soon  after  produced,  but  the  exact  date  remains  unknown.  For  many 
years  no  wares  were  sold,  the  factory  being  conducted  as  a  royal  luxury, 
and  its  products  used  in  the  palaces,  or  disposed  of  as  presents.  In  and 
after  1789  the  porcelain  of  Buen  Retiro  was  offered  to  the  public  at  a 
shop  in  the  gardens,  and  later  in  Madrid;  but  the  prices  were  very  high, 
and  sales  not  large.  The  great  works  were  for  royal  purposes.  Two 
rooms,  one  in  the  palace  at  Madrid  and  another  at  Aranjuez,  are  lined 
with  porcelain  plaques  superbly  painted   and   ornamented  with  reliefs. 


272  PORCELAIN. 


Much  of  the  earlier  wares  resembled  the  work  of  Capo-di-Monte ;  but 
in  the  nineteenth  century  Sevres  was  frequently  copied.  White  and 
colored  figures  were  made,  and  imitations  of  Wedgwood's  blue-and-white 
jasper  wares  were  among  the  finest  products. 

In  1808,  when  the  French  entered  Madrid,  they  occupied  the  facto- 
ries, and  effectually  destroyed  them,  say  the  English  authorities;  while  the 
Spaniards  charge  the  final  vandalism  on  the  English,  who  took  possession 
in  1812,  under  Wellington.  The  buildings  were  blown  up  by  Lord  Hill, 
on  the  evacuation  that  year.  Ferdinand  II.  revived  the  manufacture  at 
La  Mancha,  but  the  glory  of  Buen  Retiro  had  departed. 

Porcelain  was  made  at  Alcoea  in  1750,  but  nothing  is  definitely 
known  of  it.  A  tea-service  is  known  with  the  shield  of  arms  of  Cordova, 
and  the  name  Gerona  under  it,  but  this  is  by  some  supposed  to  be  Chi- 
nese work.  Modern  factories  of  porcelain  exist  in  Spain  at  Barcelona, 
Sargadelos,  Seville,  and  Moncloa ;  the  latter  going  back  to  1827. 

At  Vista  Alegre,  Oporto,  a  hard-paste  porcelain  factory  was  estab- 
lished in  1790  by  Pintobasso,  which  had  royal  patronage  until  1840. 
The  mark  was  V.  A.,  with  a  crown,  in  gold  or  in  colors.  A  successor, 
marking  Y.  A.,  without  the  crown,  continues  the  work. 

VII.-FRANCE. 

In  1698,  a  family  of  potters  named  Chicanneau  made  soft-paste  porce- 
lain at  St.  Cloud.  Martin  Lister,  physician  to  Queen  Anne  of  England, 
describes  a  visit  to  their  works  in  that  year,  the  transparency  of  the  wares, 
and  the  beauty  of  the  decoration.  lie  says  that  the  secret  of  the  paste 
had  been  known  to  the  proprietor  for  twenty -five  years,  but  had  been 
brought  to  perfection  within  three  years  past.  This  would  fix  the  date 
of  the  first  making  of  soft-paste  porcelain  in  France  at  about  1095.  A 
patent  for  ten  years  to  make  porcelain  at  St.  Cloud  and  elsewhere, 
granted  to  the  heirs  of  Pierre  Chicanneau  in  1702,  recites  that  Pierre 
Chicanneau  had  experimented  many  years,  and  that  his  children  had, 
since  his  death,  succeeded  before  1090  in  making  veritable  porcelain. 

The  widow  of  Pierre  Chicanneau  married  one  Trou,  and  had  two  sons. 
Henri  and  Gabriel.  Subsequently  Henri  Trou  conducted  the  St.  Cloud 
factory,  and  Marie  Moreau,  widow  of  a  Chicanneau,  with  Dominique  Chi- 
canneau, about  1722,  established  works  in  Paris.  Marryat  says,  "The 
l>a>te  of  the  St.  Cloud  porcelain  is  compact,  and  milky  in  color,  the  lead 
glaze  vitreous,  and  unequally  laid  on,  so  as  to  become  yellowish,  and  set- 
tling into  drops.     Much  of  the  china  is  modelled  with  flowers  or  birds  in 


FRANCE.  27o 

relief,  closely  resembling  the  white  Oriental ;  the  pieces  with  imbricated 
or  artichoke  leaves  are  well  known.  Others  are  decorated  in  the  French 
style,  such  as  the  cups  and  saucers,  with  blue  arabesque  borders,  the  sides 
gadrooned.  Colored  pieces  are  more  rare,  and,  unless  marked,  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  distinguish  them  from  those  of  Chantilly,  Mennecy,  and  Sevres,  as 
all  four  manufactories  adopted  the  Chinese  style  of  decoration." 

While  the  St.  Cloud  factory  was  successfully  producing  porcelain, 
Reaumur  made  experiments  in  Paris,  designed  to  ascertain  the  compo- 
nent parts  of  Chinese  and  other  porcelain,  and  produced  in  1739  a  ware 
known  as  Reaumur's  Porcelain.  This  is  simply  glass,  which  after  man- 
ufacture is  subjected  for  some  time  to  a  high  temperature,  not  up  to  melt- 
ing heat.  Under  this  treatment,  glass  undergoes  a  series  of  changes,  the 
first  of  which  gives  it  the  appearance  of  porcelain.  Reaumur's  experi- 
ments are  interesting,  as  they  were  directed  towards  the  discovery  of  por- 
celain paste,  as  a  variation  of  glass  paste,  and  were  conducted  from  that 
point  of  view,  while  Bottcher,  at  Dresden,  and  others  sought  it  from  pot- 
tery, as  a  variation  of  pottery  compositions.  Both  views  were  right,  since 
the  composition  lies  midway  between  earthenware  and  glass,  and  is  in  re- 
ality earth  in  minute  particles  held  up  and  held  together  by  translucent 
glass. 

In  1711,  while  Lille  was  under  the  dominion  of  Holland,  Barthclemy 
Dorez  and  Pierre  Pelissier  established  a  factory  of  soft -paste  porcelain 
there.  In  their  application  to  the  mayor  and  council  for  leave  to  estab- 
lish it,  they  stated  that  it  would  be  the  second  porcelain  factory  in  Europe, 
St.  Cloud  being  the  only  other.  The  products  closely  resembled  those  of 
St.  Cloud,  and  were  long  confused  with  them  in  collections.  In  a  later 
application  to  the  mayor,  the  founders  state  that  the  master  of  the  Rouen 
factory  had  thought  that  he  had  discovered  the  secret,  and  had  made 
wares  which  he  sent  to  Paris  for  sale  as  St.  Cloud  fabrics,  which  were  so 
poor  that  they  had  injured  the  reputation  of  St.  Cloud,  but  that  the  fraud 
had  been  discovered,  and  Rouen  had  been  constrained  to  abandon  the  fab- 
rication. This  accusation,  if  accepted  as  true,  leaves  a  doubt  whether  the 
Rouen  fabric  was  porcelain. 

Claude  Reverend,  a  Delft  potter,  removed  to  Paris,  and  in  1661  ob- 
tained a  grant  to  make  faience,  and  to  imitate  the  porcelain  of  the  Indies. 
This  grant  has  given  rise  to  much  discussion  in  France,  and  it  is  main- 
tained on  the  one  side,  and  denied  on  the  other,  that  Reverend  produced 
porcelain.  There  is  no  satisfactory  evidence  of  his  having  done  so,  but 
many  French  amateurs  attribute  to  him  works  and  marks  which  are  not 
otherwise  assignable. 

IS 


274  PORCELAIX. 


In  1725,  Ciquaire  Cirou  established  at  Chantilly  a  factory  of  soft- 
paste  porcelain,  and  produced  articles  of  great  beauty  in  every  form, 
which  became  highly  popular.  The  Chantilly  sprig  pattern,  a  small  blue 
flower  scattered  over  the  piece,  was  long  a  favorite,  and  was  everywhere 
copied.  This  factory  continued  till  the  French  Revolution,  and  was  re- 
vived in  L793  by  an  Englishman,  Mr.  Potter,  wdio  made  hard  paste  and 
faience,  imitating  Wedgwood  and  other  English  wares.  In  1803,  a  new 
factory  was  founded.  The  surface  of  Cirou's  work  was  of  a  pure  white, 
produced  by  the  use  of  tin  in  the  glaze,  but  the  body  was  almost  opaque. 

Louis  Poterat,  of  Rouen,  obtained  in  1673  a  grant  for  making  porce- 
lain similar  to  the  Chinese.  For  this  potter  the  invention  of  soft-paste 
porcelain  in  France  has  been  claimed,  but  the  claim  is  not  supported.  He 
may  have  produced  wares  in  imitation  of  Oriental,  but  the  chief  evidence 
of  this  rests  on  the  accusation  before  mentioned,  made  by  potters  at  Lille, 
that  he  sold  his  wares  as  St.  Cloud  porcelain,  injured  the  reputation  by 
the  inferior  quality,  of  his  fabrics,  and  was  compelled  to  stop  their  pro- 
duction. Specimens  of  porcelain  are  known,  which  M.  Jacquemart  and 
other  French  authorities  attribute  to  Poterat  —  an  attribution  generally 
acquiesced  in  by  French  connoisseurs ;  but  other  specimens  bearing  for 
mark  A.  P.  with  a  star  are  much  disputed.  The  subject,  which  has  more 
local  than  general  interest,  has  been  discussed  in  France,  without  reach- 
ing a  satisfactoiy  conclusion. 

In  1735,  Francis  Barbin  established  a  factory  of  soft -paste  porcelain 
at  Mi:.\m:<  y-Villeroy,  and  produced  excellent  ware,  decorated  in  every 
style  and  with  great  artistic  ability.  Fine  figures  and  groups,  rivalling 
the  work  of  Sevres,  were  made.  In  1773,  this  factory  ceased,  its  materi- 
als being  removed  to  Bourg-la-Reine. 

In  1740,  two  brothers,  Dubois,  workmen  from  St.  Cloud,  went  to  Yin- 
cennes, and  offered  to  M.  Orry  de  Fulvy,  Intendant  of  Finance  under 
Louis  XV.,  to  sell  the  secret  of  making  porcelain.  The  offer  was  accepted, 
and  a  laboratory  at  Vincennes  assigned  for  them.  Three  years  of  fruit- 
less labor  and  an  expense  of  sixty  thousand  francs  resulted  in  failure,  and 
they  were  discharged.  M.  Riocreux  attributed  to  them  ware  having  for 
mark  a  tower,  lint  this  has  also  been  assigned  to  Tournay.  Experimental 
work  was  continued  in  the  Yincennes  laboratory  until  1745,  when  a 
French  sculptor,  Charles  Adam,  formed  a  company,  to  which  the  king. 
Louis  XY.,  granted  special  privileges  for  thirty  years,  and  assigned  a  loca- 
tion for  the  works  in  the  Chateau  of  Yincennes. 

The  early  products  of  the  work  at  Yincennes  were  chiefly  flowers  in 
porcelain  and  wares  in  imitation  of  Oriental.     In  1753,  the  king,  Louis 


FRANCE.  275 

XV.,  became  one-third  owner  of  the  works,  and  it  acquired  the  title  of 
Royalty.  Madame  de  Pompadour  is  said  to  have  taken  great  interest  in 
its  productions,  and  they  were  now  brought  to  such  perfection  that  their 
beauty  and  the  favor  of  royalty  together  produced  a  vastly  increased  de- 
mand for  them.  Increased  business  required  larger  accommodations,  and 
in  1756  the  works  were  removed  to  Sevres,  where  buildings  had  been 
erected  for  them. 

Sevres. — In  1756,  after  the  removal  from  Vincennes,  Louis  XV.  pur- 
chased the  entire  interest  and  became  sole  owner  of  the  porcelain  works. 
A  decree  of  January  17th,  1760,  provided  that  the  work  should  be  called 
"Manufacture  de  Porcelaine  de  France"  a  name  which  has  disappeared 
in  the  simple  word  Sevres.  The  same  decree  forbade  any  person  to  make 
porcelain  plain  or  painted,  gilded  or  not,  with  relief  sculpture,  flowers  or 
figures,  except  only  that  they  might  make  white  porcelain  painted  in  blue 
in  Chinese  patterns.  Gilding  was  specially  prohibited  in  all  other  fac- 
tories, on  either  pottery  or  porcelain. 

In  1761,  the  secret  of  making  hard-paste  porcelain  was  purchased  of 
Pierre  Antoine  Hannong,  whose  name  appears  in  connection  with  the 
spread  of  this  art  in  various  places.  But  as  this  secret  consisted  only 
in  the  use  of  kaolin,  and  kaolin  was  not  known  to  exist  in  France,  except 
of  inferior  quality,  it  was  a  useless  purchase  until  1769.  A  lady  named 
Darnet,  wife  of  a  surgeon  of  St.  Yrieix,  near  Limoges,  had  found  near  that 
place  some  white  clay,  which  she  submitted  to  her  husband  as  a  possible 
substitute  for  soap  in  washing.  He  sent  a  specimen  to  Macquer,  chemist 
in  the  Sevres  factory,  who  recognized  in  it  the  desired  kaolin.  The  quan- 
tity was  found  to  be  abundant,  and  in  1769  the  first  hard-paste  porcelain 
was  produced  at  the  royal  factory.  Thereafter  hard  and  soft  paste  both 
were  made  at  Sevres  until  1804.  Soft  paste  was  not  made  from  1805  un- 
til 1817,  when  it  was  resumed,  and  since  that  time  both  pastes  are  pro- 
duced. The  phrase  Vieux  Sevres  is  arbitrarily  confined  to  soft-paste  wares 
made  before  the  year  1800. 

From  the  time  when  the  king  became  sole  proprietor,  the  Sevres  fac- 
tory has  always  employed  the  highest  skill  in  the  art,  both  in  the  model- 
ling and  in  the  decoration  of  its  products.  Hence  a  long  list  of  artists, 
eminent  as  Sevres  decorators,  wdiose  works  are  sought  as  eagerly  by  lov- 
ers of  porcelain  as  are  the  works  of  other  artists  on  panel  and  canvas 
by  their  admirers.  Boileau  was  director  from  1760  to  1773;  Parent  suc- 
ceeded him,  but  was  discharged  in  1779,  for  selling  factory  works  for  his 
private  benefit.  Regnier  succeeded  Parent  in  1779,  and  continued  to  be 
director  until  imprisoned  by  the  Republicans  in  1793.     A  commission  of 


27G 


PORCELAIN. 


three  members  of  the  convention  then  superintended  the  affairs,  Chanou 
being  in  immediate  charge,  and  thereafter  Salmon,  Etlinger,  and  Meyer 
were  joint  directors  until  1800,  when  Brongniart  became  director.  Alex- 
ander Brongniart  is  one  of  the  most  distinguished  men  in  ceramic  history. 

Learned,  accomplished,  having-  a  thor- 
oughly correct  and  critical  taste,  he  was 
eminently  fitted  for  the  position  which 
he  occupied  until  his  death,  in  1847.  Al- 
though the  soft -paste  work  of  the  last 
century  has  been  the  favorite  with  col- 
lectors, the  Sevres  factory  never  attained 
to  such  success  in  any  former  period  as- 
under the  direction  of  Brongniart,  nor 
are  its  products  of  this  time  surpassed  in 
any  portion  of  its  history.  In  some  re- 
spects the  works  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury in  hard  paste  far  outdo  all  their 
predecessors.  Great  vases,  of  sizes  un- 
known before,  were  made  under  the  di- 
rection of  Brongniart.  Plaques,  four  feet 
bv  three,  of  white  porcelain,  were  paint- 

167.  Sevres  Vase:  gros  bleu.     Height  13       J  .  .  .  r 

inches.    (Bemalsale;  the  pair  sold  for  ed  by  eminent  artists  with  copies  of  lia- 
£590.)  pliael,  Vandyke,  Titian,  and  the  works  of 

other  great  masters  in  the  galleries  of  France  and  Italy.  Table  services 
of  unequalled  lustre,  dishes  with  lapis -lazuli  borders,  ornamented  with 
landscapes,  portraits,  and  deceptive  copies  of  cameos,  attested  the  success 
of  the  new  director.  The  colors  on  the  soft  paste  sank  gently  into  the 
paste,  and  produced  more  harmonious  and  delicate  effects,  but  the  col- 
ors resting  on  the  glaze  in  the  hard  paste  gave  more  brilliancy  and  eclat, 
while  the  gilding  had  more  of  the  effect  of  solid  metal.  The  art  student 
finds  it  difficult  to  decide  which  of  the  two  classes  of  ware  are  the  more 
satisfactory  to  his  love  of  the  beautiful,  the  vieux  Sevres,  or  the  hard  paste 
of  the  Brongniart  period.  The  superb  plaques  and  other  works  of  Le 
(iuav,  Langlace",  Georget,  Constantin,  Beranger,  Robert,  and  numerous 
other  artists  of  the  later  period  rank  as  high  as  any  of  the  productions  of 
the  former  century. 

Brongniart  was  the  first  director  who  brought  to  his  work  a  thorough 
scientific  and  practical  knowledge  of  all  departments  of  the  art.  His 
published  works  on  the  subject  are  of  great  value,  and  the  splendor  of 
the  products  of  the  factory  under  his  care  abundantly  exhibit  his  ability. 


FRANCE. 


277 


The  personal  attention  which  he  gave  to  the  details  of  the  work  is  at- 
tested by  occasional  specimens  on  which  his  approval  is  endorsed — "  Vii 
Alex.  BT  This  visa  was  not  designed  as  a  mark,  but  appears  to  have 
been  the  stroke  of  a  crayon  made  by  the  director  with  great  rapidity  on 
the  backs  of  such  pieces  as,  for  special  reasons,  were  submitted  to  his  ex- 
amination after  the  painting  and  before  the  tiring.  After  his  death  the 
directors  have  been  Ebelman,  succeeded  by  Iiegnault,  following  whom 
came  Robert,  the  present  director.  Among  the  most  noteworthy  ad- 
vances in  the  art  made  from  time  to  time  was  the  adoption,  under  the 
administration  of  Regnault,  in  1861,  of  the  principle  of  compressing  the 
paste  in  moulds  of  large  objects  by  means  of  air  pressure.  Previous  to 
this,  great  difficulty  had  been  found  in  preventing  the  collapse  of  large 
vases,  moulded  in  the  wet  paste,  and  not  yet  thoroughly  dried  or  baked. 
By  the  new  process,  the  mould  holding  the  wet  paste  is  subjected  to  an 
air-pump,  which,  as  may  be  desired,  presses  the  air  into  the  interior  of  the 
mould  and  paste,  or  exhausts  the  air  from  a  receiver  adjusted  to  be  air- 
tight around  its  exterior ;  and  in  either  case  the  uniform  and  powerful 
pressure  of  the  atmosphere  compresses  the  paste  and  produces  a  strong 
object,  from  which  the  mould  may  be  at  once  removed  without  danger 
to  the  form.  This  is  not  only  one  of  the  great  triumphs  of  the  Sevres 
factory,  but  one  of  the  most  ingenious  of  modern  applications  of  scientific 
knowledge  to  the  useful  arts. 

The  history  of  the  Sevres  factory  is  a  brilliant  art  history.  The  styles 
of  its  products  are  illustrations  of  the  changing  tastes  of  the  upper  classes 
in  France ;  for  Sevres  porcelain  was  always  so  expensive  that  its  use  was 
confined  to  the  wealthier  of  the  population.  The 
prevailing  styles  are  known  as  the  Pompadour,  or 
Rocaille,  from  1753  to  1763  ;  style  Louis  XV.,  from 
1763  to  1786 ;  style  Louis  XVI.,  from  1786  to 
1793.  Every  class  of  article  known  to  ceramic  art 
was  made.  Furniture  was  made  of  wood  in  the 
factory,  and  ornamented  with  plaques  of  porcelain, 
the  wood  being  little  visible  between  the  gorgeous 
enamels,  over  which  were  porcelain  statues,  exqui- 
sitely modelled.  Entire  tables  of  porcelain,  clocks, 
armoires.  vast  jardinieres,  vases  on  the  pedestals  of 
which  stand  groups  of  animals,  candelabra  in  great 
variety,  mirror  and  other  frames,  all  of  the  most  168.  Sevres  Cup  and  Saucer, 
elaborate    workmanship,    and     innumerable    other  (Genet  Coll.) 

forms  of  useful  and  decorative  furniture,  were  among  the  factory  prod- 


278 


rORCELAIX. 


nets.  In  1780,  Mademoiselle  Beaupre,  an  actress,  appeared  in  a  carriage 
whose  panels  were  porcelain,  "ornee  de  peintures  delicieuses,  les  encadre- 
ments  en  cnivre  surdore."  In  1TS2,  the  king  gave  to  the  Comtesse  du 
Xord  a  toilet-table  and  mirror  in  porcelain,  which  cost  seventy-five  thou- 
sand livres.  The  patronage  of  the  crown  and  of  Madame  de  Pompadour, 
Madame  Du  Barri,  and  others  connected  with  the  court  enabled  the  fac- 
tory to  execute  many  of  its  most  expensive  works. 

While  the  factory  was  still  at  Vincennes,  it  produced  porcelain  flow- 
ers, painted  to  imitate  nature.     It  is  said  that  these  were  made  by  the 

wives  of  workmen.  They  became  popular, 
and  formed  an  important  part  of  the  work. 
Brongniart  states  that  two  groups,  made  in 
1748  for  the  king  and  dauphiness,  cost  three 
thousand   livres.      The    Marquise   de   Pompa- 


dour once  received  the  king  in  winter  at  the 
Chateau  of  Belle  Vue  in  a  room  opening  from 
which  was  what  appeared  to  be  a  conservatory 
filled  with  exquisite  flowers  in  bloom,  and  emit- 
ting their  various  odors.  All  were  porcelain 
of  Vincennes.  The  story  relates  that  the  king- 
was  surprised,  deceived,  and  delighted  at  the 
spectacle ;  but  it  is  probable  that  the  surprise 
was  feigned,  since  another  story,  also  exagger- 
ated, but  founded  on  fact,  says  that  the  king 
once  ordered  porcelain  flowers,  chiefly  for  the 
marquise  and  Belle  Vue,  to  the  amount  of 
eight  hundred  thousand  livres. 


169.  Sevres  Vase  :  gros  bleu. 
Height  15^  inches.  Paintings 
by  Gremont.  (Bernal  sale;  the 
pair  sold  for  £y<>0.) 


Perhaps  the  most  celebrated  service  made 
at  Sevres  was  that  executed  in  1778  for  the 
Empress  Catharine  II.  of  Russia,  consisting  of  744  pieces,  and  costing 
328,188  livres,  equivalent,  in  our  time,  to  nearly  $200,000.  It  was  subse- 
quently scattered,  a  hundred  and  sixty  pieces  being  stolen  at  the  time  of  a 
tire  in  the  palace.  These  were  sold  in  England.  Most  of  them  were  re- 
purchased by  the  Emperor  Nicholas  and  restored  to  Russia,  about  1852. 
.V  few  pieces,  however,  are  still  in  private  collections.  A  plate  of  the 
service  Mas  sold  at  Baron  Thibou's  sale  in  February,  1875,  for 
twenty-four  hundred  francs.  This  plate  was  probably  like  one 
in  the  possession  of  Robert  Napier,  Esq.,  dated  1777,  which  is 
described  as  of  turquoise  ground,  having  in  the  centre  the  letter 
E,  formed  of  small  flowers,  and  II  interlaced,  over  which  is  the        no. 


FRANCE. 


279 


imperial  crown  between  branches  of  palm  and  laurel.  On  the  border, 
in  medallions,  are  portraits,  exquisite  antique  engraved  gems  on  jasper 
ground,  and  two  narrow  borders  of  white,  with  flowers  and  gilding.  The 
marks  of  all  the  artists  are  on  the  back  of  the  plate — Dodin  for  cameos 
and  busts,  Niquet  for  the  initials  in  flowers,  Boulanger  for  the  bouquets, 
and  Prevost  for  the  gilding. 

Madame  Du  Barri  relates  in  a  letter  that  she  had  made  a  present  of 
two  blue  cats,  in  Sevres  porcelain,  to  Madame  de  Mirepoix.  These  two 
cats  are  described  by  Marryat  as  of  old  turquoise  celadon,  with  head  dra- 
peries of  ormolu,  bearing  ormolu  candelabra  for  four  lights  on  their  backs. 
The  ears  were  pierced,  and  diamonds  to  the  value  of  150,000  francs  sus- 
pended in  them.  They  were  sold  at  Christie's,  in  London,  in  1863,  for 
£367  10s.,  without  the  diamonds,  of  course.  Other  animals,  snuffboxes, 
and  various  small  articles  were  also  made. 

Jewelled  porcelain,  so  called  from  the  ornamentation  in  colored  pastes 
resembling  precious  stones,  pearls,  etc.,  was  first  produced  according  to 
some  authorities  in  1777,  others  say  in  1780.  This  date  should  be  borne 
in  mind  by  collectors,  as  a  large  quantity  of  counterfeit  Sevres  porcelain 
is  of  this  description,  and  it  frequently  occurs  that  the  date  of  the  counter- 
feit is  earlier  than  1777,  in  which  case  the  piece  is  false.  Any  jewelled 
porcelain  which  is  dated  with  a  single 
letter  from  A  to  Y  is  not  Sevres.  The 
year  1777  is  dated  Z. 

Statuettes,  groups,  animals,  medal- 
lions in  white  and  in  blue  or  black  re- 
lief on  white,  busts  and  other  objects, 
were  produced  in  porcelain  bisque  in 
great  numbers.  Over  five  hundred 
models  were  preserved  in  the  museum. 
Many  by  Falconnet,  Boizot,  La  Rue, 
Pajou,  and  other  modellers  are  cele- 
brated. These  were  frequently  made 
to  accompany  dinner  services,  and  were 
superb  ornaments  of  the  table. 

No  collection  exists  which  can  be  said  to  illustrate  fully,  or  even  fairly, 
the  splendid  variety  of  the  work  of  this  factory.  It  was  a  happy  idea  of 
Brongniart,  in  1805,  to  found  a  ceramic  museum  at  Sevres.  Louis  XVI. 
presented  his  collection  of  Greek  vases,  formed  by  Denon,  and  the  Govern- 
ment gathered  specimens  of  the  clays  and  fabrics  of  France.  Foreign 
governments  and  individuals  contributed  by  gift  or  in  exchange.    In  1826, 


Sevres  Plate.     (Hoe  Coll.) 


280  PORCELAIN. 


Brongniart  brought  to  his  aid  in  the  museum  Riocreux,  who  had  been  a 
flower-painter  in  the  factory  from  1808,  and  whom  an  accident  had  disa- 
bled from  pursuing  his  work.  He  was  made  conservateur  of  the  museum, 
and  so  continued  till  his  death,  in  1S47.  The  principle  on  which  the  mu- 
seum was  founded  and  conducted  may  well  afford  an  example  to  be  imi- 
tated by  other  museums  which  are  in  danger  of  gathering  merely  curious 
or  beautiful  art,  without  effecting  illustration  of  practical  art.  "  We  pre- 
fer," said  Brongniart,  "a  Greek,  Roman,  or  Mexican  vase  with  defects 
which  exhibit  the  principles  of  their  fabrication,  to  a  Greek,  Roman,  or 
Mexican  vase  which  might  represent  the  most  instructive  subject  in  the 
history  of  those  peoples."  Brongniart  gathered  in  the  museum  the  mod- 
els of  all  the  pieces  useful  or  ornamental — vases,  figures,  and  groups — that 
the  factory  had  executed  from  its  foundation.  He  thus  effected  one  of 
his  special  designs,  the  history  of  what,  in  the  "Visitor's  Guide,"  is  called 
"  le  gout  dans  les  arts ;  c'est  a  dire,  les  variations  qui  parfois  s'operent 
rapidement  dans  la  facon  de  voir,  non  seulement  du  public,  mais  des  ar- 
tistes." 

The  "  Salles  des  Modelles "  contained  the  collection  of  forms,  but  it 
was  sadly  broken  up  by  the  Prussians  in  the  war  of  1870.  Among  the 
vases  were  styles  known  as  the  vase  ecritoire,  vase  du  milieu  du  roi,  vase 
du  milieu  Falconet,  vase  chaine,  vase  console,  vase  a  bandes,  vase  vaisseau 
a  mat,  vase  fontaine  Dubarri,  vase  Duplessis  a  tetes  d'elephants,  vase  Tri- 
ton, vase  bas-reliefs  Clodion,  vase  a  l'Amour  Falconnet,  vase  a  cartels 
Bachelier,  vase  ceuf  garni. 

The  celebrated  colors  characteristic  of  Sevres  were  the  bleu  de  roi,  a 
deep  dark  blue,  sometimes  veined  or  sprinkled  with  gold,  to  resemble 
lapis  lazuli;  the  bleu  turquoise,  discovered  in  1752  by  Ilellet ;  the  rose 
Pompadour,  sometimes  called  rose  Du  Bam,  discovered  in  1757  by 
Xzrowret ;  the  violet  pensee  ;  the  vert  pomme,  Or  vert  jaune  ;  the  vert  pre, 
or  vert  anglais ;  and  the  jaune  clair  or  jonquille.  In  the  use  of  these  as 
ground-colors,  presenting  an  even  tint  of  equal  richness  and  beauty  on  a 
surface,  this  factory  had  no  rival. 

Without  seeing  the  specimens,  it  is  not  easy  to  form  an  idea  of  the 
cosl  of  Sevres  porcelain  in  the  earlier  times,  for  the  value  of  such  articles 
always  depended  on  the  amount  of  work  expended  on  each,  as  well  as  on 
the  " breakage,"  which  often  requires  the  moulding  and  baking  of  several 
pieces  before  one  perfect  is  finished.  Some  of  the  prices,  however,  are  in- 
teresting, as  illustrations  of  the  luxury  of  the  work  and  of  the  times.  The 
king  gave  to  the  King  of  Denmark,  in  1758,  a  service  of  green  with  fig- 
ures, flowers,  and  birds,  costing  30,<H»0  livres;  in  1780,  to  the  Archduke 


FRANCE.  281 

Ferdinand  of  Austria  a  service  of  turquoise,  with  daisies  and  roses,  sculpt- 
ured centres,  and  also  a  blue  cabaret,  with  miniatures,  busts  of  the  kino- 
and  queen,  all  which  cost  26,748  livres ;  in  1787,  to  the  Spanish  ambassa- 
dor a  grand  table  service,  blue  ground  with  flowers,  which  cost  48,252 
livres;  and  in  1788,  to  the  Sultan  of  Mysore  a  table  service,  vases,  cups, 
and  busts,  costing  33,126  livres. 

An  album  at  the  factory  contains  a  large  number  of  colored  drawings 
of  plates,  made  during  the  last  century,  with  prices,  and  names  of  some  of 
the  purchasers.     A  few  of  these  are  as  follows : 

Livres. 

Plate  :  flowers  (Prince  Louis  dc  Rohan) 12 

Plate :  blue  border  and  centre — flowers  and  gilt  (Princess  de  Lamballe)  . .  18 

Plate :  rose  and  foliage  (Madame  I)u  Barri) 27 

Plate  :  Chinese  figures  (Madame  Du  Barri) 140 

Plate  :  ground  green  ceil  de  perdrix — birds  and  busts 72 

Plate  :  birds,  the  names  under — bleu-de-roi  borders 72 

The  marks  on  Sevres  porcelain  are  of  two  kinds — the  factory  marks, 
and  the  marks  used  as  signatures  by  artists  Mdio  decorated  the  pieces. 
Both  are  given  in  the  Table  in  detail,  so  far  as  known,  and  we  believe  our 
list  to  be  the  most  complete  hitherto  published.  The  factory  marks  va- 
ried from  time  to  time.  It  is  important  for  the  inexperienced  collector 
to  note  that  though  the  form  of  the  interlaced  double  J2?  is  alwavs  sub- 
stantially as  indicated  in  the  Table  of  Marks  herewith,  it  was  not  always 
precisely  the  same,  being  pencilled  on  the  ware  with  a  brush,  not  stamped 
with  a  uniform  type.  The  marks  are  usually  in  bine,  except  as  otherwise 
indicated.  A  cut  in  the  glaze  across  the  mark  indicates  that  the  piece 
was  sold  from  the  factory  in  pure  white,  and  decoration  on  pieces  thus 
marked  is  not  original  in  the  factory. 

A  system  of  dates  by  letters  was  adopted  in  1753.  It  rarely  occurred 
that  the  date  letter  was  omitted,  and  therefore  articles  bearing  the  simple 
double  L  mark  should  be  of  Vincennes  fabric,  as  the  factory  was  there 
until  1756.  But  immense  quantities  of  counterfeit  porcelain  bear  this 
mark,  without  date.  Services  in  velvet-lined  boxes,  plates  in  bleu  de  roi, 
and  turquoise,  with  jewels  and  paintings,  cups  and  saucers  quite  prettily 
made  and  ornamented,  abound  in  bric-a-brac  shops,  and  the  supply  is  kept 
up  constantly  from  French  makers.  None  of  these  would  deceive  a  col- 
lector who  had  familiarized  his  eye  to  the  genuine  works  of  the  factory, 
and  happily  now  art  museums  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  are  begin- 
ning to  furnish  opportunity  for  study  by  examples.  Counterfeits  are 
abundant,  and  the  collector  needs  experience  before  trusting  his  judgment 


2S2  PORCELAIN. 


in  purchasing.  We  have  already  noticed  the  frequent  occurrence  of  jew- 
elled ware  bearing  dates  earlier  than  1 777,  and  therefore  counterfeit.  It 
sometimes  occurs  that  hard-paste  wares  hear  a  Sevres  mark  and  date  prior 
to  17<*»(.»,  when  hard  paste  was  first  made.  Such  specimens  are,  of  course, 
counterfeit.  Soft-paste  specimens  hearing  date  from  1804  to  1846  are  for 
the  same  reason  counterfeits. 

The  most  deceptive  counterfeits  are  outside  decorations  on  genuine 
old  Sevres  porcelain.  In  1S13,  Brongniart,  having  previously  directed 
the  factory  wholly  to  the  production  of  hard  paste,  sold  the  entire  stock 
on  hand  of  old  soft-paste  wares,  including  a  large  amount  of  unfinished 
pieces.  Three  dealers,  named  Peres,  Ireland,  and  Jarman,  bought  the  lot, 
and  proceeded  to  decorate  it  in  old  styles.  They  employed  Sevres  artists, 
and  the  results  were  so  fine  as  to  defy,  in  many  cases,  the  most  experi- 
enced collectors.  In  1S14,  Louis  XVIII.  received  a  present  of  a  dejeuner 
service,  with  medallion  portraits  of  Louis  XIY.  and  persons  of  his  court, 
which  for  two  years  remained  at  the  Tuileries  before  it  was  suspected 
to  he  one  of  the  new  counterfeits.  An  examination  at  the  manufactory 
showed  that  the  plateau  was  of  a  late  form,  and  the  decoration  certainly 
not  old.     It  was  then  placed  in  the  Sevres  Museum  as  an  example. 

Clignancourt. —  This  factory  was  established  in  1775,  by  Pierre  De- 
ruelle,  under  the  patronage  of  the  Count  de  Provence,  brother  of  the  king. 
The  soft-paste  wares  were  known  as  Porcelaine  de  Monsieur. 

Bourg-la-Reine. — Jacques  and  Jullien  removed  their  material  hither 
from  Mennecy  in  1773,  and  continued  the  manufacture  of  soft  paste. 

Orleans.  —  The  faience  factory  at  Orleans,  under  the  direction  and 
proprietorship  of  Gerault-Daraubert,  made  soft-paste  porcelain  in  1753. 
The  ware  resembles  that  of  other  early  French  factories,  as  Mennecy, 
Sceaux,  etc.  Various  kinds  of  wares  were  made  —  flowers,  figures,  and 
biscuit. 

Sceaux  Penthievre. — Jacques  Chapelle,  having  founded  here  a  factory 
of  faience,  began  to  make  soft-paste  porcelain  in  1750,  and  the  product 
was  continued  till  towards  the  close  of  the  century.  Birds,  groups  of  Cu- 
pids in  clouds,  bouquets,  etc.,  characterize  the  wares,  which  are  often  of 
the  highest  quality. 

Arras. — A  factory  of  soft-paste  porcelain,  established  1784,  suspended 
after  four  or  five  years.  The  work  sometimes  equalled  Sevres,  and  is 
highly  esteemed.  This  ware  is  frequently  disfigured  by  small  particles  of 
coal  which  was  used  in  place  of  wood  for  the  baking,  and  which  some- 
times adhered  to  the  surface.  The  same  thing  occurred  in  other  factories 
occasionally. 


FRANCE.  283 

Boulogne. — A  modern  factory  of  superior  porcelain,  established  by 
Haffringe. 

Etiolles. — Factory  established  by  Monnier,  176S,  for  soft  paste  ;  after- 
ward made  hard  paste.     Early  work  in  imitation  of  St.  Cloud. 

Brancas-Lauragais. — The  Count  de  Lauragais  made  hard-paste  porce- 
lain in  1765  which  was  decorated  in  blue.  He  went  to  England,  offered 
to  sell  the  secret,  and  in  1766  obtained  an  English  patent,  stating  that  he 
had  found  the  materials  in  England,  and  produced  the  porcelain  there.  If 
true,  this  was  the  first  hard-paste  porcelain  made  in  England  as  a  sj>ecial- 
ity ;  Bow  having  previously  made  exceptional  pieces.  No  specimens  are 
identified. 

Vlncennes. — Pierre  Antoine  Hannong  was  manager  of  a  porcelain  fac- 
tory here,  founded  about  1786,  and  belonging  to  a  M.  Le  Maire.  It  was 
under  the  protection  of  Louis  Philippe,  Due  de  Chartres. 

Niderviller. — We  have  described  the  faience  of  this  place.  Under 
the  Baron  de  Beyerle  and  Count  Custine,  hard-paste  porcelain  was  made, 
of  good  quality.  Lanfray,  who  was  Custine's  director,  brought  it  to  great 
perfection.  After  Custine's  unfortunate  end,  Lanfray  continued  the  works 
as  proprietor.  In  1827,  Dryander,  of  Sarrebruck,  bought  them,  and  after  a 
few  years  ceased  to  make  porcelain.  The  stamped  mark  Niderville  oc- 
curs on  some  fine  statuettes  and  groups  relating  to  America,  such  as  B. 
Franklin,  and  Franklin  with  Louis  XVI.  in  a  group.  Lemire  and  Cyffle 
are  named  as  modellers  of  many  of  the  beautiful  groups  of  Niderviller. 
Joseph  Deutsch  was  a  painter.  The  curious  decoration  of  white  cards 
with  black  pictures  on  a  ground  resembling  wood,  which  was  used  on  pot- 
tery, was  also  used  on  porcelain. 

Boissette. — Hard  paste,  established  1777. 

Yaux. — A  monogram,  seemingly  of  YAYX,  attributed  to  this  place 
(about  1770),  is  also  attributed  to  Bordeaux. 

La  Seinie. — Established  1771. 

Caen  (1800-10).  —  Hard  paste,  resembling  Sevres  paste,  well  deco- 
rated. 

Yalognes  (1800-'10). — Hard  paste  of  the  best  quality,  employing  some 
of  the  artists  at  Sevres. 

Bayeux. — Established  1810,  and  still  continuing.     Hard  paste. 

Bordeaux.  —  Uncertain  period.  Jacquemart  names  a  potter,  Ver- 
neuilles,  to  whom  marks  are  assigned. 

Tours.— Established  1782. 

Yalenciennes. — Hard  paste.  Established  1785;  made  biscuit  groups 
and  figures,  and  other  wares. 


284  PORCELAIN. 


St.  Amano  les  Eaux.  —  Soft  paste.  Established  1815  by  De  Betti- 
gnies.  This  factory  has  constantly  made  the  best -known  copies  of  old 
Sevres  pate  tendro,  even  the  fine  vases  of  the  old  time. 

C'iia'i  ii.i.o.n'  (Seine). — Hard  paste  was  made  here  in  1775. 

Nantes. — Hard  paste.  Established  1779  ;  closed  about  1790.  Another 
factory,  of  soft  paste,  was  established  in  1809. 

Choisy-le-Roy. — Hard  paste.     Established  1786. 

Limoges. — Soft  paste.  Established  about  1774,  by  M.  Massie.  The 
mark  was  C.  D.  It  was  discontinued  1788.  Other  works  were  estab- 
lished and  soon  suspended.  About  1774,  a  factory  of  hard  paste  was 
founded,  which  has  continued  till  the  present  day.  The  director,  ap- 
pointed in  1788,  was  M.  Alluand,  a  learned  and  skilful  ceramist.  Sev- 
eral other  factories  of  hard-paste  porcelain  have  been  established  at  Li- 
moges in  modern  times. 

Marseilles. — Savy,  the  widow  Perrin,  and  Robert,  faience  -makers, 
are  all  supposed  to  have  made  porcelain.  None  is  known  of  the  first  two. 
Fine  specimens,  in  soft  and  in  hard  paste,  decorated  with  views  of  Mar- 
seilles, and  other  well-executed  paintings,  are  attributed  to  Robert. 

Paris. — Many  porcelain  factories  were  established  in  Paris  ;  and,  al- 
though generally  unimportant,  there  are  occasional  pieces  made  in  the 
different  shops,  which  were  decorated  by  the  best  artists.  Well-known 
names  of  Sevres  decorators  are  found  on  vases  and  other  pieces  of  the 
Paris  makers.  We  have  already  mentioned  the  establishment  of  the 
widow  of  Chicanneau  of  St.  Cloud,  founded  about  1722,  for  soft  paste,  and 
continued  till  about  1762. 

The  Manufacture  du  Due  d'Orleans,  for  hard  and  soft  paste,  was 
established  17S4,  and  in  1786  was  authorized  by  Louis  Philippe  Joseph, 
Duke  of  Orleans,  to  sign  L.  P.,  and  take  the  name  by  which  it  was 
known. 

Henry  F.  Chanou  established  a  hard-paste  factory  in  1784. 

Jean  Joseph  Lazzia  established  a  hard-paste  factory  in  1774. 

The  De  La  Courtille  factory  of  hard  paste,  established  in  Paris  in 
1773  by  Jean  Baptist  Locre,  was  important,  and  produced  the  finest  class 
of  work,  decorated  by  the  best  artists.  It  was  called  also  La  Manitfacture 
de  Porcelain*  d* Allemande,  and  the  mark  of  two  torches  crossed  is  often 
mistaken  for  that  of  Dresden,  the  porcelain  being  similar.  This  mark 
resembles  too  that  of  Dubois,  also  in  Paris.  A  large  class  of  vases  com- 
mon in  America, covered  with  gilding,  more  or  less  ornamental,  with  han- 
dles moulded  in  serpent.'SCroll,  and  other  forms,  having  on  one  or  both 
sides  paintings,  usually  poorly  executed,  but  sometimes  fine,  are  of  this 


FRANCE.  285 

factory.  Marks  are  not  common  on  them.  We  have  seen  specimens, 
painted  and  signed  by  celebrated  Sevres  artists,  which  are  valuable. 

Jacob  Pettit  established  at  Belleville  in  Paris,  in  1790,  a  hard-paste 
factory,  making  fine  work  in  vases,  candelabra,  figures,  and  a  variety  of 
beautiful  wares.  lie  made  porcelain  flowers,  mounted  on  metal  branches 
and  leaves,  and  used  as  relief-work  on  vases,  etc.  Later  these  works,  re- 
moved to  Fontainebleau,  have  imitated  Dresden  with  the  mark. 

A  factory  of  hard  paste,  founded  by  Le  Mai  re  in  1780,  was  purchased 
in  1783  by  M.  Nast,  who  produced  choice  work,  much  of  which  was  ex- 
quisitely decorated.     The  factory  is  still  in  existence. 

Honore  established  a  hard -paste  factory  about  1785.  In  1812,  Ed- 
ward and  Theodore  Honore  formed  a  partnership  with  P.  L.  Dagoty. 
and  the  works  were  called  Manufacture  de  Madame  la  Duehesse  d'An- 
gouleme.  Dagoty  retired  in  1820,  and  established  another  factory.  The 
same  P.  L.  Dagoty  had,  at  the  end  of  the  last  century,  a  factory  of  hard 
paste,  which  was  later  styled,  and  marked,  Manufacture  de  &  M.  V  1m- 
jperatrice. 

Pierre  Antoine  Ilannong  had  a  hard-paste  factory,  in  1773,  in  a  fau- 
bourg of  Paris,  where  he  made  wares  signed  II. 

Vincent  Dubois  established  in  1773  a  hard-paste  factory,  using  for  his 
mark  two  crossed  branches  with  leaves,  in  allusion  to  his  name.  They 
are  sometimes  called  pointless  arrows. 

The  Porcelains  d'Angouleme,  hard  paste,  was  made  from  1780,  by 
Dihl  &  Guerhard.     The  finer  works  of  this  factory  are  prized. 

The  works  of  M.  Feuillet  in  modern  times  are  important  because  of 
one  of  his  marks,  the  interlaced  L's  of  Sevres,  enclosing  the  letter  F, 
often  mistaken  for  the  Sevres  mark,  which  it  resembles.  He  has  pro- 
duced much  superbly  decorated  work.  His  plates  have  ordinarily  the 
three  support  marks. 

Isle  St.  Denis.  —  Hard  paste,  established  1778  by  Laferte.  Bisque 
busts  are  known,  signed  Gross. 

Strasbourg. — About  1752,  Paul  Hannong,  then  working  the  faience 
pottery  at  Strasbourg,  learned  the  secret  of  hard-paste  porcelain,  and  be- 
gan its  fabrication.  The  interference  of  the  royal  factory  at  Sevres  sus- 
pended his  work,  and  he  went  to  Frankenthal  in  1753. 


286  PORCELAIN. 


VIII -GERMANY,  AUSTRIA,  AND  HUNGARY. 

The  introduction  into  Europe  of  the  manufacture  of  hard  -  paste  or 
true  porcelain  was  one  of  the  most  important  events  in  history.  Pot- 
tery was  fragile,  and  its  decoration  was  expensive  if  beautiful.  Porcelain 
was  as  beautiful  as  gems  in  its  white  condition,  far  more  durable  than 
pottery,  and,  when  it  could  be  made  cheaply,  took  the  place  of  wood  and 
pewter  in  domestic  use.  Thus  it  became  the  vehicle  for  the  introduction 
of  art,  with  its  refining  influences,  into  the  most  humble  houses,  and  into 
very  many  wealthy  homes  also  where  formerly  gold  and  silver  had  been 
abundant,  but  art  had  found  no  entrance.  The  civilizing  and  elevating- 
influences  exerted  by  the  discovery  in  Europe  of  the  art  of  making  true 
porcelain  can  hardly  be  over-estimated.  To  form  some  idea  of  this,  it  is 
only  necessary  to  reflect  on  the  vacuum  that  would  be  produced  in  do- 
mestic circles,  among  the  rich  as  well  as  the  poor,  if  all  porcelain  were 
abolished,  and  all  modern  stone  -  ware,  which  has  been  produced  as  the 
rival,  and  therefore  as  one  of  the  effects,  of  porcelain. 

China  and  Japan  had  made  porcelain  from  a  remote  period,  but  up  to 
the  year  1700  the  quantity  imported  into  Europe  had  been  comparatively 
small.  Only  the  wealthy  possessed  it,  and  few  even  of  that  class.  Little 
was  known  except  the  blue-and- white.  Wood  and  pewter  furnished  the 
tables  of  a  large  portion  of  the  population,  giving  place  here  and  there  to 
coarse  pottery,  which  in  the  houses  of  the  wealthy  was  enriched  with 
more  or  less  artistic  decoration. 

In  1701,  the  Elector   of  Saxony,  Augustus  II.,  King  of  Poland,  had 

in  his  employ  Tschirnhaus,  an  experienced  chemist,  and 

John  Frederic  Bottcher,  a  young  chemist,  who  together 

sought  the  "philosopher's  stone."     Bottcher  was  a  man 

fond  of  gayety,  uniting  remarkably  the  characteristics 

of  a  hard  worker  and  a  free  drinker.     Their  laboratory 

was  in  the   old   castle   at  Meisseu,  on   the  Elbe,  about 

twelve    miles    from   Dresden.      Tschirnhaus    furnished 

iP"  Bottcher  with  a  clay  found  near  Meissen,  to  be  used  in 

172.    Bottcher    Ware  making  crucibles.      Bottcher  ascertained  that  this  clay 

Teapot,     lacquered  would  make  a  hard  pottery,  varying  from  deep  brick- 

S1  •  (  ■-  •   °  •)  red  to  a  dark  ashy  brown  in  color,  exceedingly  strong, 

as  well  as  fine  in  grain.     It  was  not  porcelain,  but  a  stone-ware.     The 

king  recognized  the  value  of   the  discovery ;    and  possibly  because   of 


GERMANY,  AUSTRIA,  AND  HUNGARY. 


287 


Bottcher's  giving  to  this  ware  the  name  7'ed  porcelain  encouraged  the 
chemist  to  seek  the  art  of  making  true  porcelain. 

Bottcher  ware,  as  this  red  stone -ware  is  commonly  called,  was  pro- 
duced in  considerable  quantity  and  variety  of  form.  It  was  at  first  with- 
out glaze,  and  was  decorated  by  polishing  and  engraving  the  surface  on 
a  lapidary's  wheel,  or  by  varnishing  with  lacquer,  on  which  designs  in  gilt 
were  painted.  Somewhat  later,  a  ware,  which  has  been  classed  as  Bottcher 
ware,  was  produced,  of  rich  dark  chocolate-color,  well  glazed,  and  decorated 
with  designs  in  gold  and  in  silver,  chiefly  Oriental  in  character. 

Bottcher's  further  experiments  seem  to  have  been  continued  with- 
out very  much  method,  and  consisted 
in  making  pastes  of  various  compo- 
sitions, which,  being  subjected  to  the 
furnace  heat,  failed  to  produce  por- 
celain. He  stumbled  on  the  secret 
by  an  accident.  The  story  is  that 
his  valet  purchased  a  new  hair-pow- 
der in  Dresden,  and  the  chemist, 
observing  that  his  wig  was  heavier 
than  usual,  tried  some  of  the  hair- 
powder  in  one  of  his  mixtures.  The 
result  was  true  porcelain.  Inquiry 
led  to  the  discovery  that  the  hair- 
powder  was  that  clay  which  alone 
of  all  clays  will  produce  hard-paste 
porcelain,  and  which  is  known  by 
its  Chinese  name,  kaolin.  An  iron- 
master, one  Schnorr,  had,  while  rid- 
ing on  horseback  at  Aue,  near 
Schneeburg,  noticed  this  clay  adhering  to  the  hoofs  of  his  horse.  Schnee- 
burg  was  in  the  mining  district  of  the  Erzgebirge,  where  nature  had 
stored  silver,  tin,  iron,  lead,  coal,  and  even  cobalt,  which  furnishes  the  best 
blue  in  ceramic  decoration.  Doubtless  the  iron-master  was  led  to  think 
this  clay,  unlike  any  other  that  he  had  seen,  worth  an  examination  in  a 
country  so  rich  in  mineral  products.  He  found  no  better  use  for  it,  how- 
ever, than  to  sell  it  in  Dresden  for  hair-powder,  and  by  accident  Bottcher 
discovered  that  the  ore -mountain  district  furnished  also  this  treasure  of 
kaolin.  The  Government  monopolized  the  discovery,  and  sought  to  keep 
it  a  profound  secret.  The  kaolin  was  placed  in  sealed  casks  by  dumb 
men,  and  conveyed  to  Meissen,  where  now  the  king  established  a  porce- 


173.  Dresden  Cup  and  Saucer :   King's  period. 
(T.-P.  Coll.) 


2SS 


PORCELAIN. 


174.  Dresden  White  Teapot:   Marcolini 
period.     (T.-P.  Coll.) 


lain  factory.  Every  precaution  was  taken  to  preserve  the  knowledge  of 
tin'  art  from  becoming  public.  The  workmen  were  not  only  sworn  to 
secrecy,  but  were  practically  prisoners  in  the  castle  at  Meissen.  On  the 
walls  they  read  everywhere  the  notice,  "Secrecy  to  the  grave."  But 
stone-walls  and  oaths  failed  to  guard  this  secret,  which  was  more  valua- 
ble to  the  world  than  would  have  been  the  philosopher's  stone  which  the 
discoverer  had  set  out  to  find.  Nevertheless,  the  rule  of  secrecy  was  ob- 
served at  Meissen  for  a  hundred  years, 
and  was  not  repealed  till  in  1812,  when 
Napoleon  sent  Brongniart,  the  savant  and 
director  at  Sevres,  to  Meissen,  to  inspect 
the  Saxon  processes.  Even  the  king, 
when  he  visited  the  works,  went  through 
the  formality  of  the  oath  as  an  example. 
Within  a  few  years  after  Bottcher's  dis- 
covery, the  art  was  known  throughout 
Europe,  and  various  factories  were  estab- 
lished. There  is  some  confusion  about 
dates  in  connection  with  Bottcher's  dis- 
covery. Tschirnhaus  died  in  1708,  and 
it  was  probably  about  1710  that  Bottcher's  heavy  wig  led  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  kaolin.  The  first  public  sale  of  Dresden  or  Meissen  porcelain 
was  at  the  Leipsic  fair  in  1715.  In  1718,  a  Meissen  workman  was  bribed 
to  violate  his  oath,  and  carried  the  art  to  Vienna,  whence  it  went,  in  1720, 
to  ilochst,  and  then  spread  widely  from  year  to  year. 

The  rapidity  with  which  the  art  sprang  to  perfection  is  not  surprising, 
since  kaolin  was  the  only  substance  wanting  to  the  product  of  pure  white 
translucent  hard  paste.  With  the  art  of  decorating  pottery  Europe  had 
long  been  thoroughly  familiar,  and  the  decoration  of  porcelain  required 
few  new  instructions. 

The  first  color  used  at  Meissen  was  the  blue  from  cobalt,  perhaps  ob- 
tained from  the  same  ore  mountains  near  which  the  kaolin  was  found,  and 
pieces  wrere  decorated  in  the  style  of  Oriental  blue-and-white.  But  the 
porcelain  decorators  soon  used  all  the  colors  known  to  the  faience  decora- 
tors, and  rapidly  added  to  these.  From  about  1720  artists  of  great  ability 
were  employed  in  the  factory. 

The  history  of  the  Dresden,  Meissen,  or  Saxon  porcelain  factory  (the 
three  names  apply  to  the  one  factory)  is  usually  divided  into  three  pe- 
riods, designated  as:  1.  The  King's  period,  ending  1750  or  1796;  2.  The 
Marcolini  period,  ending  1811;   3.  The  Modern  period.     The  King's  pe- 


GERMANY,  AUSTRIA,  AND  HUNG  ART. 


289 


riod,  in  strict  words,  should  be  confined  to  the  brief  space  1731-'33, 
when  the  king  in  person  superintended  the  works,  but  it  is  commonly  ex- 
tended from  1731  to  the  breaking-up  of 
the  factory  by  the  war  in  1756,  and  by 
some  to  Marcolini's  time. 

Collectors  of  Dresden  or  other  pot- 
tery or  porcelain  should  not  be  misled 
by  fashions  which  often  control  and  pre- 
vent the  free  exercise  of  taste.  It  is  the 
fashion  to  regard  the  work  of  the  King's 
period  as  the  finest  in  every  way,  and  it 
therefore  generally  commands  the  high- 
est prices.  But  there  was  much  poor 
work  done  in  that  period,  and  much 
work  of  high  art  executed  in  the  Mar- 
colini  period  which  fully  equalled  any 
that  had  preceded  it.  The  early  por- 
tion of  the  Modern  period  also  produced  porcelain  of  the  highest  class  and 
artistic  value.  The  judicious  collector  will  be  guided  by  an  educated  taste 
in  selecting  specimens  from  the  various  periods. 

Bottcher  continued  in  charge  of  the  factory  till  his  death  in  1711'.  at 
the  early  age  of  thirty-five  years.     In  1720,  Iloroldt  became  director.     In 
1731,  the  king  himself  took  the  direction,  until  his  death,  in  1733,  when 
Count  Bruhl  was  appointed  director,  and  so  continued  till  the  breaking- 
up  of  the  factory  in  the  Seven  Years' 
War.    Frederick  the  Great  robbed  the 
Saxon  establishment  to   enrich  Ber- 
lin, but  the  factory  resumed  work  un- 
der the  direction   of  a  commission  ; 
and  after  the  peace,  Dietrich,  the  cel- 
ebrated engraver,  was  first  director. 
In  1796,  Count  Marcolini  became  di- 
rector (Marryat  says  1771),  and  so  con- 
tinued till  1814.      It  has  been  sup- 
posed by  some  that  up  to  the  death 
of  Bottcher,  in  1710,  the  factory  pro- 
duced only  white  ware,  without  col- 
176.  Dresden  Gnocoiate-pot:  Marcolini  period,    ors.      Under    Iloroldt  rapid  advance 
(T.-P.  Coll.)  was  ]lia,ie  b0tn  ju  forms  and  decora- 

tion.     Figures  of  men,  beasts,  and  birds,  of  life  size  as  well  as  small, 

19 


•_".H> 


PORCELAIX. 


177.  Dresden  Tray :  Marcolini  period.     (T.-P.  Coll.) 


were  produced.      Iviindler,  a  sculptor,  was  superintendent  of  modelling 
after  1731. 

Many  groups  of  this  period  are  celebrated.  Count  Bruhl's  tailor  and 
the  tailor's  wife  riding  on  goats  are  well  known,  from  frequent  modern 
reproductions.  "The  Carnival  of  Venice"  consisted  of  more  than  a  hun- 
dred pieces,  mostly  figurines,  which  could  be  arranged  in  one  group,  or 
placed  separately.  The  Japanese  Museum  at  Dresden  contains  a  number 
of  figures  of  wild  animals  of  life  size,  and  a  large  variety  of  specimens  of 

the  early  modelling.  In  the 
first  years  the  white  porcelain, 
not  decorated,  was  never  sold, 
being  reserved  for  the  private 
use  of  the  king,  or  for  pres- 
ents made  by  him.  Speci- 
mens have  therefore  always 
been  rare.  Baron  Busch,  Can- 
on of  Hildesheim,  had  an  art 
of  engraving  or  etching  on 
the  surface  of  white  porce- 
lain, and  good  specimens  of 
his  work  are  esteemed  most  highly.  A  service  thus  decorated,  lately  be- 
longing to  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  was  estimated  at  ten  thousand  pounds. 
Angelica  Kauffman  painted  on  Dresden  porcelain,  and  her  oil-paintings, 
as  well  as  those  of  other  eminent  artists,  were  often  copied  by  the  artists 
of  the  factory.  Lindener  (1725-'45)xis  the  most  celebrated  Dresden  artist. 
He  painted  birds  and  insects. 

In  the  Seven  Years'  War,  Frederick  the  Great  took  Dresden,  and 
seized  on  the  royal  factory,  which  was  the  property  of  the  crown.  He 
carried  to  Berlin  workmen,  moulds,  and 
even  materials,  and  from  this  plunder 
the  Berlin  factory  dates  the  origin  of 
its  success. 

The  question  which  is  often  asked 
by  persons  not  familiar  with  ceramic 
collections,  "Is  the  work  of  Dresden 
or  of  Sevres  the  superior?"  can  hardly 
be  answered.  The  Dresden  hard-paste 
porcelain  was  always  superior  to  Sevres 
as  porcelain.  In  flower  decoration,  in  birds,  insects,  and  animals  in  gen- 
eral, in  figures  and  figurines,  Dresden  work  was  generally  superior.     In 


178.  Dresden  Teapot,  to  accompany  Tray, 
No.  177.     (T.-F.  Coll.) 


GERMANY,  AUSTRIA,  AND  HUNGARY. 


291 


ground-colors,  especially  in  rose  and  in  blues,  Sevres  vastly  excelled  Dres- 
den. In  general  art,  landscape,  portrait,  and  figure  painting,  each  lover 
of  art  must  answer  the  question  for  himself.  Neither  factory  has  prece- 
dence in  reference  to  forms  of  vases  and  other  articles,  for  both  employed 
eminent  modellers,  copied  every  known  form  of  beauty,  and  produced 
many  miserable  original  forms.  It  is  worthy  of  note,  howTever,  that  in 
figurines  both  Sevres  and  Dresden,  and  all  other  factories,  were  surpassed 
by  Hochst.  The  desire  to  possess  old  Sevres  has,  however,  been  so  great 
that  its  prices  vastly  exceed  those  of  Dresden. 

The  factory  marks  used  on  Dresden  ware  at  various  periods  are  given 
in  the  Table.  They  are  usually  in  blue,  under  the  glaze.  The  forms  of 
these  marks  vary,  because  they  were  made  rapidly  wTith  a  dashing  stroke 
by  the  decorator  or  workman.  The  examples  given  are  typical,  and  slight 
departures  from  these  forms  are  unimportant. 

The  earliest  marks  known  are  the  monogram  of  A.  R.,  and  the  mark 
of  the  caduceus  of  Mercury,  as  it 
has  been  called,  or  the  wand  of 
^Esculapins,  as  others  think  it. 
The  latter  mark  was  used  only  on 
pieces  made  for  sale.  The  crown- 
ed A.  R.  is  occasionally  found  in 
gold. 

In  1721,  the  crossed  swords, 
taken  from  the  arms  of  the  Elect- 
or of  Saxony,  were  adopted,  usual- 
ly with  a  dot  or  a  circle  between 
the  handles,  and  continued  in  this 
form  until  the  Marcolini  period, 
daring  which  a  star  took  the 
place  of  the  dot.  The  modern 
mark  is  the  crossed  swords  with- 


179.  Dresden  Chocolate-pot,  to  accompany  Tray, 
No.  177.     (T.-P.  Coll.) 

out  dot  or  star,  occasionally  accompanied  by  letters  or  numbers,  or  both. 
The  letters  M.  P.  M.,  for  Meissener  Porzellan-Manufactur,  and  K.  P.  M., 
for  Koniglicher  Porzellan-Manufactur,  are  found  on  some  early  speci- 
mens, but  these  and  some  other  marks  are  rare  and  exceptional. 

Of  late  years  this  royal  Saxon  factory  has  descended  to  the  production 
of  porcelains  bearing  its  own  ancient  marks,  a  practice  which  not  only 
brings  just  condemnation  on  the  present  management,  but  inevitably  tends 
to  the  injury  of  its  old  reputation ;  for  the  modern  works  are  inferior  to 
those  of  many  of  the  Continental  factories. 


29  2 


rOIiCELAIX. 


180.  Dresden  Saucer :  King 
period.     (T.-P.  Coll.) 


All   porcelain  sold   in  white  undecorated  condition   has  the   factory 

mark  cut  across  by  one  cut  in  the  glaze.  Xo  decorated  piece  having  the 
mark  thus  cut  was  decorated  in  the  factory.  But 
many  aide  artists  have  used  the  white  porcelain 
thus  cut  for  decoration,  and  it  does  not  follow  that 
a  specimen  is  to  be  rejected  on  account  of  the 
scratch  across  the  factory  -  mark.  It  is  only  to  be 
remembered  that  a  piece  thus  scratched  is  not  a 
specimen  of  the  Dresden  factory  decoration.  A  dec- 
orated specimen  with  one  or  two  scratches  above  or 
below  the  mark  (not  crossing  it)  is  thus  scratched 
because  of  some  defect.  Vessels  for  table  use 
which  have  defects  are  cut  with  two,  three,  or  four  scratches  crossing 
the  mark,  the  defects  being  greater,  the  greater  the  number  of  marks. 

"We  not  unfrequently  find  table  services  consisting  of  some  pieces  dec- 
orated in  the  factory  and  some  decorated  outside  on  factory  porcelain ; 
and  it  sometimes  occurs  that  the  outside  decoration  is  the  better.     These 
instances  probably  happen  from  the  filling -up  of  partially  broken  ser- 
vices.    The  factory  has,  of  late 
years,  produced  wares  in  exten- 
sive quantity,  counterfeiting  its 
own  ancient  marks. 

Quite  recently  a  large  quan- 
tity of  porcelain  has  been  sold 
in  America,  bearing  the  Dres- 
den mark,  which  is  made  in  oth- 
er factories.  Figurines  of  a 
coarse  paste,  poorly  glazed,  and 
vases  in  a  variety  of  forms,  are 
quite  common.  The  collector 
who  has  once  learned  the  ap- 
pearance of  old  Dresden  ware 
Diamond  en-  will  not  be  deceived  by  these 
articles,  which  are  generally 
clumsy  in  modelling  and  weak  in  color.  The  same  counterfeiters  place 
the  old  Berlin  and  other  marks  on  their  wares. 

It  remains  only  to  add  that  the  products  of  the  Dresden  factory 
have  been  almost  infinite  in  form  and  purpose'.  Services  for  the  table. 
ornamental  vases,  figures  of  men  and  animals,  candelabra,  frames,  portions 
of  furniture,  household  utensils  of  various  kinds,  plaques — in  short,  an 


181.  Dresden  Milk-pot:  King's  period 
-laving.     (T.-P.  Coll.) 


GEE  MA. VI*,  AUSTRIA,  AND  HUNGARY. 


293 


182.     Dresden      Vas 


innumerable  variety  of  objects,  were  the  product  of  this  first  of  the  Eu- 
ropean factories  of  true  porcelain. 

Vienna. — The  Vienna  factory  of  hard -paste  por- 
celain was  the  first  child  of  Dresden.  Claude  Inno- 
cent Du  Pasquier,  having  received  a  patent  (bearing 
date  May  27th,  a.d.  1718),  for  twenty-five  years,  from 
the  Emperor  Charles  VI.  for  the  exclusive  sale  of  por- 
celain in  the  Austrian  Empire,  went  to  Dresden,  bar- 
gained with  a  Meissen  workman  named  Stenzel  for  a 
yearly  payment  of  a  thousand  thalers  and  a  carriage, 
and  induced  him  to  break  his  oath,  and  2:0  to  Vienna, 
where  Pasquier  established  the  factory.  His  partners 
were  Heinrich  Zerder,  Martin  Peter,  and  Christophe 
Conrad  Hunger,  an  artist.  The  work  was  poor.  Sterl- 
ing's period.  (T.-P.    ze\  WOuld  not  communicate  the  secret,  and  not  beino- 

Coll ) 

regularly  paid,  abandoned  the  factory,  which  was  sus- 
pended after  two  years  of  unsuccessful  work.  Du  Pasquier  in  some  way 
discovered  the  secret,  and  resumed  the  production  of  porcelain ;  but,  in 
1711,  finding  his  labors  unrewarded  by  the  success  he  had  expected,  he 
offered  it  to  the  Government.  Maria  Theresa  accepted  his  offer ;  the 
State  purchased  the  factory  in  1717;  Du  Pasquier  was  appointed  direc- 
tor; and  a  more  brilliant  era  commenced.  Groups  and  figures  were  now 
produced,  Joseph  Niedermeyer 
being  chief  modeller.  Down  to 
1790  the  factory  produced  its 
best  work  of  this  description. 
After  17S0  its  artists  equalled 
Dresden  in  painting  and  deco- 
ration, and  this  high  rank  was 
maintained  to  1820.  In  1785, 
under  the  direction  of  the  Bar- 
on de  Sorgenthal,  great  strides 
were  made  in  all  departments 
of  work.  Good  medallions 
and  imitations  of  Wedgwood's 
wares  were  also  produced.  The 
paintings  of  Watteau,  Boucher, 
Angelica  Kauffman,  and  many 
other  celebrated  artists  have 
been   exquisitely  reproduced  on  Vienna  porcelain.     Leithner,  a  chemist, 


IS!1.  Vienna  Plate.      Embossed  border;   fruit  and 
flowers  painted.      (T.-P.  Coll.) 


294 


rone  el  mx. 


prepared  the  most  celebrated  colors,  and  that  gilding  which  is  renowned 
as  a  very  striking  feature'  of  the  ware.  George  Perl  succeeded  Leithner, 
and  is  distinguished  as  a  decorator.    Schindler  was  an  artist  in  ornaments; 

Foerstler  painted  mythological  sub- 
jects; Lamprecht  was  an  animal- 
painter,  who  afterward  worked  at 
Sevres;  Joseph  Nigg  painted  flow- 
ers ;  Yarsanni,  Wech,  Ilerr,  Perger, 
Raffey,  and  Schallez  are  also  known 
as  painters. 

A  rich -cobalt  blue  and  a  red 
brown,  botli  discoveries  of  Leithner, 
were  characteristics  of  Vienna  deco- 
ration.    The  factory  ceased  in  1864. 

The   mark   was    always   the   shield 
184.  Vienna  Chocolate-pot.     (T.-P.  Coll.)  of  ^  armg  of  Austriaj  varvmg  m 

form,  and  from  17S1  to  1864:  pieces  were  marked  with  the  date,  by  im- 
pressing in  the  paste  the  last  three  numerals  of  the  year — thus,  812  for 
1812.     The  signatures  of  artists  also  occur  on  pieces. 

The  Vienna  marks  are  sometimes  counterfeited  by  modern  potters, 
and  collectors  must  depend  on  experience  in  judging  of  their  purchases. 
We  have  seen  soft-paste  plates,  richly  decorated,  bearing  the  Vienna  mark, 
which  were  admirable  specimens  of  work,  apparently  French. 

Herexd  (Hungary). — No  factory  has  more  puzzled  collectors  by  its 
products  than  this.  Its  marvellous  imitations  of  old  work,  signed  with 
Ilerend  marks.  Led  to  the  belief  that  an  old  factory  of  porcelain  had  ex- 
isted there.  Many  splendid  specimens  have  been  brought  to  America, 
copies  of  Oriental  wares  and  of  decorations  of  Sevres  and  Dresden,  as 
well  as  original  works  of  the  artists  of  the  factory.  A  factory  of  pipes 
was  the  only  pottery  at  Ilerend  until  1830,  when  Moriz  Fischer  estab- 
lished his  hard-paste  porcelain  works,  whose  original  products  equal  those 
of  any  European  establishment,  and  whose  reproductions  of  Oriental 
wares  are  of  such  sort  as  to  deceive  the  most  experienced.  The  factory 
mark  is  usually  placed  on  its  wares.  No  intent  to  deceive  is  shown.  The 
maker  seems  to  take  pride  in  exhibiting  the  marvellous  skill  with  which 
he  can  duplicate  the  beautiful  styles  of  the  celebrated  old  factories  of 
Europe  and  the  rarest  wares  of  Asia. 

So  deceptive  are  some  of  these  last  that  a  cabaret  of  white  porcelain, 
having  compartments  in  green,  with  flowers,  etc.,  was  purchased  by  the 
South  Kensington  Museum  in  1863  as  Oriental,  and  its  Hungarian  ori- 


GERMANY,  AUSTRIA,  AND  HUNGARY.  295 

gin  was  not  discovered  for  a  long  time.  The  history  of  a  very  beautiful 
bowl  in  our  collection,  classed  as  unknown  Asiatic  ware,  was  precisely  sim- 
ilar. The  ground  is  a  pale  green,  decorated  with  white  marguerites  and 
other  flowers  in  rich  colors  on  stems  springing  from  the  base.  The  ex- 
quisite enamels  extend  over  the  bottom,  leaving  a  small  white  circle  in 
the  centre.  A  few  touches  of  blue,  supposed  for  years  to  be  accidental, 
were  at  length,  with  the  aid  of  a  glass,  resolved  into  the  Herend  mark  of 
the  Austrian  arms. 

The  marks  used  at  this  factory  are  various.  Those  given  in  the  Table 
of  Marks  are  taken  from  specimens  in  our  own  collection.  IIekend,  im- 
pressed in  the  paste,  is  a  frequent  mark.  The  Austrian  shield  is  used  in 
various  sizes,  sometimes  very  small.  The  mark  with  the  crossed  swords 
of  Dresden,  and  the  letter  W  accompanying  the  impressed  name,  is  on  a 
service  decorated  in  rich  Oriental  style.  Odd  marks  in  red,  somewhat 
like  Chinese  signs,  are  on  specimens  with  Oriental  decorations.  The  pro- 
prietor of  this  factory  has  earned  for  it  a  brilliant  reputation,  due  to  the 
close  attention  paid  to  its  productions.  He  employs  artists  from  Dresden 
for  his  imitations  of  Saxon  porcelains,  from  Sevres  for  copies  of  the  old 
French,  and,  finding  no  Europeans  competent  in  certain  parts  of  the  imi- 
tation work,  has  introduced  Chinese  skilled  labor  on  his  Oriental  wares. 
This  is  the  only  instance  within  our  knowledge  of  the  employment  of  the 
Orientals  in  European  porcelain  factories. 

A  factory  at  Prague,  in  Bohemia,  uses  for  its  mark  K  &  G,  Prag,  im- 
pressed. 

A  factory  exists  at  Pirkeniiamer,  near  Carlsbad,  founded  in  1802,  and 
purchased  in  1818  by  Christian  Fischer,  whose  partner  was  Eeichembach. 
The  marks  are  C.  F.  and  F  &  It.  This  factory  has  taken  high  rank  in 
modern  times. 

Sciilakenwald.- — A  hard-paste  porcelain  factory  was  established  at 
Schlakenwald,  in  Austria,  about  1800,  and  produced  good  work  in  ser- 
vices and  other  forms.  The  mark  was  a  large  S,  and  sometimes  a  script 
S,  painted.  On  a  pair  of  fruit  dishes,  painted  with  a  bouquet  of  flowers 
and  richly  gilded,  in  our  collection,  the  latter  mark  is  in  gold.  The  fac- 
tory was  in  operation  at  a  recent  date. 

A  hard-paste  porcelain  factory  was  established  at  Elbooen,  in  Bohemia, 
in  1815,  and  still  exists.  Its  work  is  celebrated,  especially  that  made  under 
M.  Haidinger.     The  mark  is  an  arm,  with  elbow  bent,  holding  a  sword. 

Alten-Rotiiau.  —  A  hard-paste  porcelain  factory  exists  at  this  place, 
the  proprietor  A.  Xowotny.  The  mark  is  impressed  —  either  the  name 
Nowotny  or  the  initials,  A.  N. 


296 


PORCELAIN. 


Berlin. — The  Berlin  (liard-paste)  factory  was  established  in  17M  by 
William  Wegeley,  whose  mark — a  W  (of  which  the  middle  lines  cross),  is 
found  on  early  specimens.     In   L761,  Gottskowski,  a  banker,  bought  the 

establishment,  and  improved  the  products.  Gru- 
nenger  was  employed  as  director,  and  so  con- 
tinued after  the  purchase  of  the  factory  by  the 
king  in  1763.  At  this  time  the  products  of  ev- 
ery kind  were  of  the  best  sort.  Not  only  the 
ordinary  services  and  vases  were  made,  but  also 
groups,  figures,  snuffboxes,  ear-rings,  lamps,  can- 
delabra, furniture  ornaments,  and  a  large  vari- 
ety of  other  objects. 

On  the  occupation  of  Dresden,  by  Frederick 
the  Great,  in  the  Seven  Years'  War.  he  trans- 
ported from  the  Meissen  factory  not  only  ma- 
terials, but  workmen,  clay,  and  specimens  from 
the  Dresden  collection,  to  enrich  his  works  at 
185.  Berlin  Cup  and  Saucer.  (T.-   i>el.]in>     a  curious  decree  made  by  Frederick 

P.  Coll.)  . 

for  the  encouragement  of  his  factory,  and  the 
diffusion  of  its  work,  forbade  any  Jew  in  his  dominions  to  marry  until  he 
produced  a  voucher  from  the  director  of  the  factory  that  lie  had  bought  a 
specific  amount  of  porcelain.  In  1  TT<»,  seven  hun- 
dred men  were  employed  in  the  works.  From  that 
time  to  this  the  Berlin  royal  factory  has  kept  pace 
with  the  advancing  and  changing  demands  of  the 
successive  periods,  and  within  the  past  few  years 
has  achieved  greater  triumphs  than  perhaps  any 
other  ( 'ontinental  factory.  Its  products  have  been 
in  every  form  known  to  ceramic  art,  and  its  artists 
skilful  in  all  departments  of  decoration.  While,  in 
general,  its  flower-painting  was  not  equal  to  that  of 
Dresden,  it  was  in  some  instances  superior.  Berlin  figures  and  groups  of 
the  last  century  were,  as  a  rule,  superior  in  modelling  and  color  to  those 
of  Dresden.  As  Berlin  reproduced  the  rare  and  splendid  works  of  other 
factories,  but  with  its  own  mark,  counterfeiters  have  sometimes  covered 
the  blue  sceptre  mark  with  a  gold  rose  or  a  green  leaf  to  conceal  it,  some- 
times first  removing  the  mark  and  glaze  with  fluoric  acid.  The  sceptre 
mark  is  not  always  in  the  same  form,  but  the  differences  are  no  indication 
of  comparative  date. 

Zithqphanie,  the  making  of  pictures  in  plaques  of  porcelain  paste,  the 


1SG.  Berlin  Teapot. 

Coll.) 


(T.-P. 


GERMANY,  AUSTRIA,  AND  HUNGARY.  297 

shades  produced  by  the  varying  thickness  of  the  plaques,  was  invented  in 
this  factory.  Transfer  printing  on  porcelain  is  also  claimed  here  as  the 
discovery  of  a  chemist,  Pott,  in  1753,  in  which  year  he  published  a  book 
on  the  subject.  It  does  not  appear,  however,  that  any  practical  use  was 
made  of  the  art. 

About  1760  a  hard- paste  factory  was  founded  at  Charlottenburg, 
near  Berlin,  by  Pressel,  which  continued  till,  in  modern  times,  it  was  ab- 
sorbed by  the  royal  factory. 

From  1717  to  1729  hard -paste  porcelain  was  made  at  Brandenburg. 

A  factory  of  hard -paste  porcelain  has  long  existed  at  Altwasser, 
which  produced  good  table  wares,  tastefully  decorated. 

In  1720,  Bingler,  escaped  from  the  oaths  and  secrets  of  Vienna,  came 
to  IIociist,  then  in  the  electorate  of  the  Bishop  of  Mayence,  and  assisted 
Gelz  and  others  in  adding  a  hard-paste  factory  to  the 
faience  works  already  there  existing.  Exceedingly 
beautiful  work  was  produced,  especially  in  figures  and 
groups,  of  which  the  most  highly  prized  are  those  by 
the  modeller  Melchior,  which  are  occasionally,  but  rare- 
ly, marked  M.  His  successor,  Ries,  made  figures  with 
large  heads,  and  his  period  is  commonly  called  the 
"Thick-head"  period.  Christian  Gottlieb  Kuntze  was  ig^" Berlin  Cup^por- 
an  enamel  painter  of  the  factory,  celebrated  for  blue  trait  of  Frederick  the 
and  red.     In  1794  the  works  were  sold.  Great    (T-p- Coll.) 

Nuremberg.  —  As  early  as  1712,  soft -paste  porcelain  was  made  at 
Nuremberg  by  Marz  and  Romeli,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  were  faience- 
makers.  In  the  Berlin  Museum  are  six  oval  plaques,  painted  in  blue, 
with  inscriptions  giving  the  name  of  Christoph  Marz  as  founder  of  the 
Nuremberg  porcelain  fabric  in  1712,  and  that  of  George  Tauber  as  the 
painter  in  1720,  while  another  inscription  in  nearly  the  same  words  gives 
the  name  of  Johann  Conradt  Romeli  as  founder.  Another  plaque  in 
England  records  the  name  of  J.  J.  Mayer  as  purchaser  of  Romelfs  half 
interest  in  1720.  All  these  plaques  which  have  portraits  of  Marz  and 
Romeli  among  their  other  decorations  seem  to  have  been  made  as  rec- 
ords of  the  history  at  the  time  of  Romelfs  sale.  Marz  died  in  1731, 
when  the  works  were  sold.  A  plaque  in  M.  Demmin's  collection  records 
his  death. 

Fkaxkenthal. — A  hard-paste  factory  was  established  at  Frankenthal, 
in  Bavaria,  by  Paul  Hannong,  in  1754,  which  made  wares  of  the  highest 
class  till  1800.  In  1761,  it  became  the  property  of  the  Elector  Carl 
Theodore,  and  under  his  patronage  equalled  in  the  beauty  of  its  products 


298  PORCELAIN. 


any  European  fabric.  The  figurines  of  Frankenthal  have  justly  a  great 
reputation.  Fruit  and  flower  paintings  were  admirably  executed.  The 
works  when  sold,  in  L800,  were  removed  to  Greinstadt,  and  continued 
in  private  hands. 

In  1747,  a  factory  of  Lard  paste  was  founded  at  Nymphenbtjrg  and 
Neudech  by  a  potter,  Niedermayer.  Ringler  came  here  in  L756,  and  in 
1758  the  works  were  confined  to  Nymphenburg.  The  products  arc 
highly  prized,  and  works  are  of  great  beauty.  Heintzmann  and  Adler 
are  among  the  celebrated  decorators  of  the  wares  in  landscape;  Linde- 
mann,  another.  L.  C.  Fouquet,  a  Sevres  painter,  also  worked  here,  having 
previously  worked  at  Berlin.  The  factory  is  still  at  work  in  private  hands. 
The  white  wares  are  sometimes  sold  undecorated,  with  the  impressed  mark, 
and,  being  decorated  at  other  factories,  receive  a  second  mark  in  color. 

The  Baireuth  porcelains  are  modern. 

Ansfach  (in  Bavaria  since  1800)  was  the  seat  of  a  hard-paste  porcelain 
factory  in  the  early  part  of  this  century,  at  which  some  very  well  deco- 
rated wares  were  made. 

Furstenburg. — Bengraf,  from  Hochst,  established  a  hard-paste  factory 
at  Furstenburg,  in  Brunswick,  in  1750,  wdiich  was  under  the  patronage 
of  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  and  has  continued  during  modern  times, 
making  wares  of  very  high  quality  and  decoration.  The  mark  is  the 
letter  F  in  several  cursive  forms,  sometimes  accompanied  with  initials  of 
artists.  On  a  set  of  three  vases  in  our  collection  are  the  letters  A.  B. 
On  others  are  R.  R.,  A.  C,  and  on  one  Beck. 

Hard-paste  porcelain  was  made  at  IIoxter  about  1770  by  a  painter  of 
flowers — Zeiseler — who  was  succeeded  by  Paul  Becker. 

At  LrDWiosBURG,  or  Kroxenburg,  in  AViirtemberg,  Ringler  established 
a  hard-paste  factory  in  1758,  under  the  patronage  of  Charles  Eugene,  the 
reigning  Duke  of  Wurtemberg.  This  was  one  of  the  most  extensive  fac- 
tories in  Germany,  second  only  to  Dresden  and  Berlin  in  the  number  of 
its  products,  and  not  second  to  them  in  the  beauty  of  many  works. 

At  Fulda,  in  Ilesse,  in  1703,  a  hard-paste  factory  was  established  by 
the  prince-bishop,  which  produced  fine  vases,  figures,  and  services,  deco- 
rated by  able  artists.  Good  specimens  are  not  common,  and  are  highly 
prized. 

The  Thuringian  factories  of  hard  paste  are  interesting  because  of  an 
independent  discovery  of  the  art  here  made.  At  Rudolstadt,  near  Jena, 
a  young  chemist  named  Macheleidt,  then  a  student  of  Jena,  experimented 
to  find  the  secret  of  true  porcelain.  A  woman  brought  some  sand  to  his 
father  for  sale,  and  with  the  aid  of  this  he  made  a  ware  resembling  porce- 


GERMANY,  AUSTRIA,  AND   HUNGARY. 


299 


lain,  and  continued  his  experiments  until  he  perfected  the  discovery,  and 
received  from  the  Prince  of  Schwarzburg  permission  to  establish  a  fac- 
tory at  Sitzerode,  which  was  soon  after,  in  17(52,  transferred  to  Volk- 
stadt.  Other  factories  followed.  One  at  Wallendoef,  in  Saxe-Cobourg, 
was  founded  in  1762 ;  one  at  Limbach,  about  1761 ;  and  one  at  Rudol- 
stadt,  date  uncertain.  A  manufacturer  —  G.  Greiner  —  obtained,  about 
1770,  the  control  of  several  of  these  factories,  and  at  that  date  established 
one  at  Grosbreitenbacii.  He  seems  to  have  run  those  at  Volkstadt,  Wal- 
lendorf ,  and  Grosbreitenbacii  as  one  establishment,  as  we  find  the  several 
marks  on  pieces  in  the  same  services.  Some  of  the  wares  were  very  beau- 
tifully decorated.  We  have  a  Wallen- 
dorf  service,  the  pieces  decorated  with  a 
rebus:  WcmcHe  auf  over  roses  on  one 
side  ;  and  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  piece, 
Unci  over  forget-me-nots,  reading  "Wan- 
die  auf  Rosen  und  Vergiss-mein-nicht " 
(111.  188).  The  marks  R.  g.  and  R— n  are 
attributed  respectively  to  Ratisbon  and 
Rauenstein,  while  a  simple  r  is  attributed 
to  Rudolstadt.  These  marks  are  uncer- 
tain. Hard -paste  porcelain  was  made  at 
Ratisbon  (Regensburg)  in  the  last  cen- 
tury. The  factory  at  Rauenstein  was 
founded  in  1760,  and  wares  there  made 
resembled  those  of  Wallendorf. 

A   great  deal  of  Thuringian  porcelain    188.  Wallendorf  Cup  and  Saucer.    Rebus 

is  ribbed  or  fluted.     Some  of  the  wares  decoration.    (T.-P.Coll.) 

bear  the  marks  of  other  factories,  notably  of  Dresden.  The  trefoil  mark 
of  Grosbreitenbacii  is  often  very  carelessly  made.  On  a  service  in  our 
collection  no  two  pieces  have  the  mark  in  the  same  form. 

Hard-paste  porcelain  was  made  at  Gerx*.  about  1780.  The  mark  is  a 
G.  We  have  it  on  a  delicate  egg-shell  cup  and  saucer,  decorated  with 
rich  gilding  and  Chinese  figures  in  colors. 

At  Gotiia  a  hard-paste  factory  was  founded,  in  1780,  by  Rothenburg. 

From  1753  to  1778,  hard-paste  porcelain  was  made  at  Baden-Baden 
by  the  widow  Sperl. 


300  PORCELAIN. 


IX.-SWITZERLAND. 

About  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  (1759?),  a  hard-paste  por- 
celain factory  was  founded  at  Zurich,  as  it  is  supposed,  by  some  one  of  the 
workmen  at  ffochst,  in  Mayence.  The  work,  in  general  resembling  Dres- 
den, was  very  good,  and  specimens  show  the  best  class  of  paste  and  deco- 
ration. They  are  rare,  as  the  factory  ceased  work  long  ago.  We  have  a 
tea-service,  decorated  with  flowers,  admirably  executed. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  last  century,  Maubree,  a  Sevres  decorator, 
established  at  Nyon  a  hard-paste  porcelain  factory,  which  produced  very 
beautiful  work  in  French  styles.  We  have  specimens,  with  flower  decora- 
tions and  landscapes  well  executed.  Mr.  Chaffers  attributes  to  this  fac- 
tory specimens  on  which  occur  the  name  Geneva  or  the  letter  ^f,  and 
states  that  the  Genevan  artists,  Delarive,  Hubert,  Gide,  and  Pierre  Mul- 
houser,  painted  Nyon  porcelain,  Gide  signing  with  his  name,  and  Mul- 
houser  with  a  monogram  of  the  letters  P  A  M.  The  fish,  mark  of  2s  yon, 
is  often  so  roughly  drawn  as  to  be  'with  difficulty  recognized. 

X-HOLLAND. 

Though  pottery  was  made  so  plentifully  in  Holland,  it  does  not  appear 
that  porcelain  was  made  until  1704.  The  Delft  potters  decorated  Chinese 
porcelain,  adding  arms  and  devices  to  the  existing  decorations,  and  it  is 
not  improbable  that  white  porcelain  was  sometimes  imported  and  deco- 
rated there.  We  have  some  specimens,  which  are  otherwise  inexplicable. 
A  large  bowl,  of  remarkably  pure  Oriental  porcelain,  has  for  sole  decora- 
tion two  oval  pictures  in  black,  the  work  of  a  first-class  European  artist 
representing  a  Dutch  political  subject,  with  a  Dutch  inscription  on  one 
side.  Thi'  decoration  contains  no  other  color,  and  is  unmistakably  Euro- 
pean, while  the  porcelain  is  certainly  ( 'hinese.  Nor  is  this  a  solitary  spec- 
imen. It  is  quite  possible  that  many  specimens  classed  as  English  ware 
of  Lowestoft  are  of  this  class'. 

In  1704,  a  hard-paste  porcelain  factory  was  established  at  Weesp,  near 
Amsterdam.  Specimens  are  rare,  for  the  factory  ceased  after  seven  years. 
The  paste  is  tine  and  thin;  the  mark,  a  W  (the  middle  lines  crossing),  or 
two  batons  crossed,  with  three  dots.  The  first  mark  is  also  that  of  We- 
gely  at  Berlin,  and  of  Wallendorf  in  Thuringia,  and  care  must  be  exer- 
cised in  assigning  specimens. 


HOLLAND.— BELGIUM.— SWEDEN.  301 

In  1772,  this  factory,  or  a  new  one,  was  opened  at  Loosdrecht,  by 
a  clergyman  named  De  Moll,  and  produced  excellent  work.  The  mark, 
M  o  L,  on  this  porcelain  has  no  reference  to  the  name  of  the  reverend 
potter,  but  means  Manufactur  oude  Loosdrecht.  A  star  sometimes  ac- 
companies it.  In  1782,  the  works  were  moved  to  Amstel  (old  Amstel, 
near  Amsterdam),  and  continued  prosperous.  Some  exquisitely  painted 
ware  was  produced  here.  The  work  ceased  before  the  end  of  the  last 
century.  About  1808,  a  factory  was  in  existence  at  New  Amstel,  but 
ceased  in  1810. 

A  mark,  a  rampant  lion  (not  crowned  as  in  the  Frankenthal  mark),  is 
assigned  to  an  unknown  factory  in  Amsterdam.  We  have  specimens  in 
white  unpainted  basket-work. 

The  Hague  had  a  hard-paste  porcelain  factory,  established  about  1775, 
by  a  German,  which  made  choice  work,  well  decorated.  It  was  short- 
lived, and  was  closed  before  1790. 

Although  Lille  was  under  the  dominion  of  Holland  in  1711,  when 
soft -paste  porcelain  was  first  made  there,  we  have  described  its  works 
among  those  of  France,  to  which  it  passed. 

XI.-BELG-IUM. 

In  1750,  a  manufacture  of  soft-paste  porcelain  was  established  at  Tour- 
nay.  Specimens  called porcelaine  de  la  Tour  (from  the  mark,  a  tower), 
in  divers  shapes,  are  assigned  to  it.  Others  have  given  these  specimens 
marked  with  the  tower  to  Vincennes  in  France.  Close  imitations  of 
Sevres  have  been  produced  here. 

At  the  end  of  the  last  century,  L.  Crette  seems  to  have  made  hard- 
paste  porcelain  at  Brussels,  which  he  signed  with  his  name.  Another 
mark  is  a  crowned  B,  but  this  is  not  certainly  of  Brussels. 

In  1806,  M.  Boch  made  hard-paste  porcelain  at  Luxembourg,  marked 
B.  L.,  the  letters  separate  and  in  monogram. 

XII.-SWEDEN. 

The  Swedish  factory,  at  Marieberg,  whose  faience  has  been  described, 
made  soft -paste  porcelain,  which  is  good  and  rare.  The  rustic  or  twig 
handles,  feet,  and  ornamentations,  as  on  the  pottery,  are  also  on  the  porce- 
lain. Figures  and  groups  are  found,  cream-pots,  with  fluted  spirals,  dec- 
orated with  beautiful  little  bouquets  of  flowers,  and  occasionally  cande- 
labra. 


302  PORCELAIN. 


XIII.-DENMARK. 

Three  parallel  waving  lines  are  the  mark  on  the  hard-paste  porcelain 
of  Copenhagen,  some  of  which  is  highly  artistic.  A  manufacture  began 
in  1760,  and  the  early  products  were  generally  decorated  in  green,  and 
are  rare,  for  the  factory  soon  ceased  to  work.  It  was  reopened  about 
1770-72  by  a  stock  company;  but  in  1775  the  Government  purchased  the 
stock,  and  has  since  carried  on  the  factory,  paying  its  annual  deficit ;  for, 
although  it  has  made  porcelain  of  the  highest  artistic  character,  it  has 
never  made  money.  Miiller,  who  started  the  revival,  remained  in  charge, 
and  it  was  in  his  time,  in  1801,  that  Lord  Nelson,  a  lover  of  porcelain, 
bought  some  in  Copenhagen,  and  sent  it  to  Lady  Hamilton,  as  recorded  in 
one  of  his  letters  to  her.  A  very  beautiful  service  of  Copenhagen  is  dec- 
orated with  portraits  of  celebrated  painters.  Some  specimens  have  fine 
flower  paintings,  and  the  general  ornamentation  is  admirably  executed. 
From  1802  to  1807  groups  and  figures  were  made  under  Midler's  direc- 
tion. 


XIV.-RUSSIA  AND  POLAND. 

The  Empress  Elizabeth  established  at  St.  Petersburg,  in  1714,  a  hard- 
paste  porcelain  factory,  with  workmen  from  Dresden,  and  the  crown  has 
fostered  the  works,  which  rank  among  the  highest  in  Europe.  The  wares 
are  hard,  the  enamel  white  and  pure,  the  decoration  various,  rising  to  the 
finest  art.  Vases,  figures,  table-wares  of  all  kinds,  are  among  the  products. 
They  often  resemble  the  works  of  Dresden,  and  sometimes  those  of  Kro- 
nenburg  and  other  German  factories.  The  mark  is  usually  the  initial  of 
the  reigning  emperor  or  empress,  in  the  Russian  alphabet.  Some  marks 
— one,  three  parallel  lines ;  and  another,  a  waving  line  somewhat  like  a 
letter  S — are  very  doubtful. 

A  manufactory  was  established  in  St.  Petersburg,  in  1S27,  by  the 
brothers  Korneloff,  whose  name  is  on  their  products. 

At  Savsk,  towards  the  close  of  the  last  century,  porcelain  was  made  by 
M.  Volkof. 

The  name  of  a  town,  Bamnowka,  is  found  on  specimens  of  hard-paste 
porcelain. 

In  Moscow,  in  1787,  an  Englishman  named  Gardner  established  a  fac- 
tory, of  whose  products  we  know  nothing,  but  the  name,  in  Russian  let- 


RUSSIA   AND  POLAND.  303 


ters,  is  found  on  specimens.     Modern  manufactories  at  Moscow  are  con- 
ducted by  A.  Popoff  and  M.  Gulena,  whose  names  are  on  their  wares. 

Richly  gilded  and  well -painted  hard -paste  porcelain  has  been  made 
since  1803  at  Korzec,  in  Poland.  Merault,  a  chemist,  from  Sevres,  went 
there  with  Sevres  artists,  to  take  charge  of  the  factory,  about  that  date. 


POTTERY    AND    PORCELAIN    OF 
ENGLAND. 


The  history  of  pottery  and  porcelain  in  England  is  worth,  the  study  of 
the  political  economist  and  the  statesman,  as  well  as  the  lover  of  art.  It 
is  little  more  than  a  century  since  the  products  of  England  were,  in  gen- 
eral, of  the  cheapest  and  most  common  kinds.  To-day,  they  not  only  ri- 
val, but  surpass,  the  products  of  the  Continental  factories  in  every  de- 


189.   Celtic  Urns. 

partment,  and  illustrate  the  noblest  and  most  beautiful  achievements  of 
ceramic  art  in  all  the  ages.  Thousands  of  families  are  supported  by  the 
industry;  largo  districts  with  crowded  populations  are  wholly  occupied 
with  it;  colossal  fortunes  have  been  amassed;  and  wealthy  potters  have 
been  public  benefactors. 

If  we  seek  the  immediate  cause  of  this  wonderful  change,  it  is  to  be 


ENGLAND. 


305 


found  in  the  cultivation  of  artistic  taste  by  those  intelligent  men  and 
women  of  England  who,  for  the  past  hundred  years,  have  devoted  atten- 
tion to  the  study  and  collection  of  pottery  and  porcelain.     The  industrial 

interests  of  England  are  as  largely  in- 
debted, during  the  last  twenty-five  years, 
to  the  gentlemen  whose  works  we  have 
so  frequently  quoted  in  these  pages  as  to 
the  inventors  of  engines,  looms,  or  tele- 
graphs. When  the  old  ladies  of  Eng- 
land were  ridiculed  for  their  enthusias- 
tic devotion  to  "old  china,"  their  critics 
knew  very  little  of  the  latent  force  which 
rested  in  a  cabinet  containing  a  few  old 
A  Chinese  turquoise  kylin  was  a  hideous 


190.  Celtic  Incense-cup. 


teapots  and  cups  and  saucers 
object  to  one  who  did  not  appreciate  the  rarity  of  the  color ;  but  that 
color  on  a  few  costly  specimens  impelled  the  potters  to  discover  its 
composition,  and,  when  reproduced,  gave  bread  and  clothing  to  a  hun- 
dred families.  But  for  the  collectors  of  England,  the  people  of  England 
and  America  might  have  gone 
on  a  century  longer,  eating  from 
cheap  Delft  ware  or  pewter  dishes. 
There  can  be  no  better  illustration 
of  the  importance  and  value  of  art 
study  and  art  collections  with  re- 
gard to  the  commercial  interests 
of  a  people.  The  policy  which 
has  been  pursued  in  America  is 
sadly  in  opposition  to  this  great 
truth  in  political  economy.  The 
heavy  duties  imposed  on  decorated 
potteries  and  porcelains  have  prac- 
tically excluded  them  from  Amer- 
ican homes  without  resulting  in 
the  establishment  of  a  solitary  ar- 
tistic pottery  in  the  United  States. 
As  a  rule,  the  people  of  this  conn-  19L  R°™no-British  Cup:  red  *are. 

try  have  never  seen  the  superb  products  of  European  art  for  household 
ornament  and  table  use  ;  and  until  the  people  become  acquainted  with 
these,  no  industrial  progress  in  ceramic  art  can  be  expected  in  America. 
The  history  of  the  art  in  England  may  be  summed  up  briefly.     Celtic, 

20 


306 


POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 


Romano-British  Urn.     (From  Castor.) 


Roman,  Saxon,  and  Norman  potteries  were  succeeded,  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  by  stone -wares  and  soft  potteries,  in  imitation   of  the  poorer 

classes  of  German  and  Delft  products. 
A  slight  artistic  progress  was  visible  un- 
til, in  the  early  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  Josiah  Wedgwood,  the  first  stu- 
dent of  art  among  English  potters,  in- 
troduced improvement  after  improve- 
ment, and  achieved  that  great  result  of 
commercial  industry,  the  production  of 
beautiful  art  at  a  cheap  rate.  One  and 
another  porcelain  factory  was  establish- 
ed, and  some  good,  some  very  beautiful 
work  produced  ;  but  these  porcelains,  if 
beautiful,  were  always  expensive,  and 
the  general  standard  of  ceramic  art  in 
England  was  below  that  of  the  Continent,  except  in  the  wares  made  by 
Wedgwood  and  those  who  followed  his  lead.  Chelsea,  Derby,  Worcester, 
and  other  factories  made  occasional  work  worthy  the  best  Continental  pot- 
teries, but  these  were  exceptional  products.  The  public  taste,  even  of  the 
educated  classes  in  England,  was  not  of  the 
highest  order  in  the  last  and  early  part  of  this 
century;  and  the  prevalence  of  ugly  imitations 
of  Oriental  decorations,  or  of  gaudy,  stiff,  un- 
graceful masses  of  gold  and  color,  attests  the 
want  of  opportunity  to  know  what  delicious 
works  the  Continental  factories  were  at  the 
same  time  producing. 

When  public  museums  began  to  show  the 
people  of  England  what  ceramic  art  had  done 
in  ancient  and  modern  times,  and  when  the  old 
collections  in  private  hands  which  had  been  rid- 
iculed by  writers  whose  knowledge  and  views 
were  limited,  came  to  be  exhibited  in  loan  de- 
partments of  museums,  a  new  era  began  in  Eng- 
lish ceramic  art.  Factories  which  had  for  more 
than  a  half -century  produced  good  plain  com- 
mercial wares,  with  occasional  articles  of  great 
beauty,  now  entered  into  competition  with  the  renowned  fabrics  of  the 
Continent.     Public  taste  was  rapidly  elevated  and  enlightened.     A  market 


193.  Romano-British  Vase. 
(From  Castor.) 


ENGLAND. 


30  7 


for  high  art  was  established,  and  increased  from  year  to  year.  The  books 
of  art  students  familiarized  the  people  with  the  triumphs  of  painters  and 
decorators  in  modern  Italy,  France,  Germany,  and  Spain,  and  in  old  Greece, 
and  the  lands  of  the  Saracens.  The  achievements  of  the  art  in  all  aires  and 
countries  were  seized  and  utilized  as  aids  to  the  new  art  in  England.  The 
result  is  the  pre-eminence  of  English  ceramic  art  in  our  day,  and  the  crea- 
tion of  that  vast  commercial  industry  employing  millions  of  capital,  sup- 
porting thousands  of  families,  and  introducing  beauty  and  abundant  refin- 
ing infiuences  into  homes  all  over  the  world.  He  must  be  wilfully  blind 
who  does  not  see  in  this  history  the  clear  evidence  of  the  importance  of 
art  education  to  the  commercial  prosperity  of  a  people,  and  the  immeas- 
urable value  to  a  nation's  industry  of  the  free  importation  of  the  artistic 
productions  of  all  other  nations.  The  general  wisdom  or  error  of  a  pro- 
tective-tariff system  is  not  involved  in  this  subject.  Whatever  be  the 
view  taken  of  that  system,  it  is  plain  to  every  intellect  that,  to  expect  ar- 


194.  Saxon  Jujr. 


1  vo.  .Saxun  Urn. 


tistic  industries  in  a  community  which  excludes  artistic  products  of  other 
communities,  is  simply  a  modern  illustration  of  the  man  in  the  ancient 
Greek  fable  of  Hierocles  who  resolved  never  to  go  into  water  until  he 
had  learned  how  to  swim. 

The  ancient  potteries  of  England  are  numerous,  the  art  having  been 
abundantly  put  in  use  by  the  various  tribes  and  races  who  possessed  and 
governed  parts  of  the  British  islands  at  different  periods.  Celtic,  Eo- 
mano-British,  Saxon,  and  Norman  potteries  abound  in  tombs  or  barrows. 


308 


POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 


The  Celtic  remains  are  chiefly  sepulchral  urns,  or  domestic  vessels,  cups, 
bowls,  and  lamps,  or  perfume  -  burners.  It  lias  been  supposed  that  they 
were  made  by  the  women,  whose  skill  and  ability  they  indicate.  Formed 
like  the  pottery  of  nearly  all  savage  tribes,  they  are  of  clay,  sand,  and  peb- 
bles intermingled,  not  baked  with  great  heat,  brown,  unglazed,  with  black 
fracture.     The  burial  urns  have  usually  a  deep  rim  falling  downward. 


196.  .Norman  Jar. 


197.  Norman  Jug.     (Derbyshire.) 


They  are  decorated  with  incised  lines,  diagonal,  herring-bone  patterns,  in 
different  arrangements.  They  are  found  usually  inverted  over  the  ashes 
of  the  dead  as  covers.  Differences  in  shape,  clay,  and  style  of  ornament 
seem  to  have  characterized  different  tribes.  The  pottery  was  not  made  on 
the  wheel,  but  by  hand,  and  mouths  of  vessels  are  in  consequence  large, 
to  admit  the  potter's  arm.  The  urns  vary  in  size  from  IS  to  25  inches  in 
height,  and  13  to  22  in  diameter.  Smaller  articles  are  of  the  same  gen- 
eral character.  Handles  are  rare,  knobs  of  clay  perforated  for  a  cord  oc- 
curring in  their  place. 

Similar  potteries  are  found  in  England,  Scotland,  Wales,  and  Ireland. 
The  Irish  are  better  in  color,  and  more  elaborate  in  ornament,  some  of 
them  hearing  a  remote  resemblance  to  basket-work.  They  are  found 
right  side  up  usually,  filled  with  bones  and  ashes.  They  have  been  found 
in  eight  or  ten  different  places  in  Ireland,  and  each  locality  lias  wares 
marked  by  some  peculiarity. 

Some  Celtic  urns  found  in  Staffordshire  maybe  regarded  as  among  the 
earliest  known  pottery  of  England,  and  the  beginning  of  the  long  series 


ENGLAND. 


309 


of  Staffordshire  wares  which  have  continued  in  a  remarkable  succession, 
and  become  so  illustrious  in  modern  days. 

The  Roman  invasion  brought  a  different  class  of  pottery  art  into  Eng- 
land. At  Castor,  or  Caistor,  in  the  Upchurch  marshes  of  Kent,  and  else- 
where, remains  of  kilns  have  been  found,  and  specimens  of  wares.  The 
Castor  wares  are  more  ornamented  than  those  found  elsewhere,  having  re- 
lief subjects — men,  dogs,  scrolls,  etc.  The  manufacture  must  have  been 
extensive  during  the  Roman  domination.  The  Samian  or  red  wares  of 
the  Romans,  of  which  specimens  are  frequently  found  in  England,  do 
not  seem  to  have  been  produced  here,  but  were  imported  from  the  Con- 
tinent. 

The  Saxon  potteries  are  not  unlike  the  Celtic  in  some  respects,  con- 
sisting largely  of  burial  urns.  These  have  not  the  peculiar  overhanging 
rim  of  the  Celtic  specimens,  but  have  necks,  are  ornamented  with  incised 
bands  and  decorations,  and  occasionally  with  knobs  or  bosses  of  clay. 
Rare  instances  occur  of  a  rude  imitation  of  Roman  ornaments.  Small 
crosses  and  other  patterns  were  made  with  a  wooden  punch  or  stamp,  and 
a  few  decorations  in  white  clay  are  known. 


198.  Norman  Yellow-glazed  Pitcher; 
thirteenth  century. 


l'jy.  Norman  Green-glazed  Pitcher: 
thirteenth  century. 


The  Norman  potteries  indicate  a  small  advance  in  art.  This  is  well 
illustrated  in  the  examples  given.  The  first  use  of  glaze  in  England  now 
begins  to  appear.  The  Norman  vessels  were  sometimes  covered  with  a 
green  glaze,  which  was  also  common  in  France  at  a  later  and  probably 


310 


POTTER  V  AND   PORCELAIN   OF  ENGLAND. 


at  this  same  period.  Occasional  specimens  have  relief  or  imposed  work, 
as  jugs  which  hear  horseshoes  and  other  ornaments,  supposed  to  refer  to 
the  Ferrars  family  (111.  197). 

For  a  long  time  after  the  Norman  conquest  little  advance  was  made  in 
the  art  of  pottery.  Tiles  for  pavements  were  made  in  Staffordshire  and 
elsewhere.  Telwright  or  Tilewright  is  an  old  name,  known  for  some  cen- 
turies in  that  district.  These  were  the  first  pottery  of  England  which  can 
lav  claim  to  importance  in  decorative  art.  The  old  churches  of  England 
were  mostly  paved  with  tiles  of  English  fabric.  These  were  better  Mare 
and  of  more  artistic  character  than  were  made  on  the  Continent,  and,  cu- 
riously enough,  among  them  we  find  considerable  indication  of  a  knowl- 
edge of  Saracen  decorations.  The  tiles  of  St.  Albans,  decorated  with  re- 
liefs, are  of  the  thirteenth  century.  Of  the  four- 
teenth century  are  some  tiles  with  patterns  in  re- 
lief, including  inscriptions.  Thus,  one  illustrated 
by  Mr.  Marryat,  has  upon  it  Orate  pro  cmima 
domini  Nieholai  de  Stowe  Vicarii.  Another 
style  was  that  in  which  the  patterns  are  im- 
pressed in  outlines,  producing  an  admirable  result 
in  general  effect.  Indeed,  we  of  the  nineteenth 
century  may  take  lessons  in  art  from  the  pot- 
ters of  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  in 
England.  They  were  probably  men  of  learning 
and  taste  in  some  instances,  for  it  would  seem 
that  the  potteries  were  sometimes  attached  to  ab- 
beys, and  the  same  skill  and  appreciation  of  art 
which  are  found  in  the  illuminations  are  found 
in  the  tiles  which  the  potteries  produced.  Prior 
( Iruden's  Chapel,  at  Ely,  has  tiles  that  were  made  by  an  artist  (111.  201), 
and  superb  work  is  found  in  Ireland. 

More  common  were  red  tiles  inlaid  with  patterns  in  white,  and  cov- 
ered with  a  yellow  glaze  which  gave  a  rich  tone  to  the  whole,  the  red 
becoming  brown.  A  great  variety  of  these  are  found  in  old  churches, 
with  arms  of  lords  of  the  State  and  of  the  Church,  devices  of  various 
kinds,  arabesques  of  simple  but  beautiful  design,  and  a  great  profusion  of 
patterns.  The  floors  laid  with  these  must  have  been  very  effective,  judg- 
ing from  specimens  in  our  own  collection,  and  such  illustrations  as  are 
found  in  Mr.  W.  A.  Church's  "  Patterns  of  Inlaid  Tiles  from  Churches  in 
the  Diocese  of  Oxford;"  Shaw's  "Specimens  of  Tile  Pavements;"  "Ex- 
amples of  Inlaid  Gothic  Tiles  in  Winchester  Cathedral,  Ramsey  Abbey 


200.  Mediaeval  English  Bottle. 
Keel,  unglazed,  white  decora- 
tion. 


ENGLAND. 


311 


Church,"  etc.,  published  anonymously,  and  other  works,  in  which  these  are 
reproduced  in  colors. 

The  Chertsey  Abbey  tiles,  in  Surrey,  dating  from  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, are  specially  noteworthy  (111.  202).     These  are  round,  having  designs 


201.  Pavement  Tile  from  Gruden's  Chapel,  El}'. 


from  old  romances,  with  surrounding  inscriptions,  enclosed  in  rich  bor- 
ders. In  the  Chapter-house  at  Westminster  is  still  to  be  seen  a  fine  pave- 
ment, dating  also  from  the  thirteenth  century  (111.  204).  More  rare  are 
tiles  in  which  the  pattern  was  painted  with  white  clay  and  glazed,  as  in 
the  example  from  Malvern  Abbey  (111.  203). 

The  domestic  purposes,  ordinarily  served  in  our  day  by  porcelain  or 
pottery,  were  in  England,  as  on  the  Continent,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  sup- 
plied by  silver,  in  the  houses  of  the  wealthy,  and  pewter  and  wood  in 
those  of  the  middle  and  lower  classes.  Wooden  trenchers  were  common, 
even  on  the  tables  of  people  well  to  do  in  the  world.  Earthenware  was 
used,  as  we  know  from  numerous  records,  but  its  quality  was  probably 
coarse  and  common.     Three  hundred  "  picheriis  "  were  paid  for  by  the  ex- 


312 


POTTERY  AND    PORCELAIN   OF  ENGLAND. 


editors  of  Queen  Eleanor,  wife  of  Edward  I.,  which  were  used  "  die  anni- 
versarii  Reginse,"  and  the  price  was  8s.  677.  for  the  whole.  Glazed  green 
and  vellow  wares  were  made,  and  sometimes  a  rude  attempt  at  higher  art 
is  visible  in  decorations  of  the  simplest  sort,  in  white  clay,  under  the  yel- 
low glaze.  A  lighter  green  was  produced  by  covering  the  whole  piece 
with  a  thin  wash  of  white  clay.  Kelief  ornaments,  made  in  moulds,  were 
imposed.  The  glazed  jugs  and  drinking-vessels  were  sometimes  moulded 
in  form  of  animals.  A  curious  jug  of  this  description,  in  the  form  of  a 
mounted  knight,  is  described,  and  the  illustration  given  by  Mr.  Marryat 


202.   Tile  from  Chertsey  Abbey. 

forcibly  reminds  one  of  the  Phenician  figures  found  in  great  quantity  by 
General  (Jesnola  in  the  tombs  of  soldiers.  This  is  of  the  thirteenth  or 
fourteenth  century. 

Vessels  for  holding  liquids  were  made  of  this  lead -glazed  ware  in 
various  parts  of  England.  The  tyg,  or  drin king-cup  with  two  or  more 
handles  (111.  205),  Was  made,  with  more  or  less  ornamentation  in  relief, 
certainly  as  early  as  the  sixteenth  century.      This  cup,  or  mug,  was  often 


ENGLAND. 


313 


large  enough  to  satisfy  the  moderate  desires  of  two,  three,  or  four  persons 
seated  around  it,  each  one  of  whom  could  lift  it  by  his  own  handle  and 

drink  from  his  own  side 
of  the  rim.  One  in  the 
Mayer  collection,  Liver- 
pool, with  four  handles, 
is  dated  1012.  Another, 
in  the  Museum  of  Prac- 
tical Geology,  is  dated 
1621. 

The  importation  of 
German  stone  -  wares  at 
the  close  of  the  sixteenth 
century  had  given  new 
ideas  to  the  English  pot- 
ters, and  they  began  to 
make  stone-ware  which 
had  some  pretence  to  ar- 
tistic appearance.  Dutch 
203.  Tile  from  Malvern  Abbey.  workmen    had    come     to 

England  in  considerable  numbers  before  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
and  among  them  were  potters  who  established  manufactories.  In  1026, 
Thomas  Eoos  and  Abra- 
ham Cullyn  received  a 
patent  for  the  making  of 
stone  pots  and  jugs  of  Co- 
logne ware.  Gray  beards 
were  produced,  and  vari- 
eties of  jugs  and  mugs, 
probably  many  by  these 
makers. 

The  English  products 
<>f  this  period  in  common 
stone-ware  so  closely  re- 
semble the  Continental 
that  it  is  not  possible  to 
distinguish  them  by  any 
characteristics.  Even 
where  English  arms  oc- 
cur  in   the   reliefs,  it   is 


u4.  Tile  from  Westminster  Chapter-house. 


314 


rOTTERT  AND    VORCELAIX  OF  ENGLAND. 


205.   Staffordshire  Tyg :  brown  clay,  lead  glaze. 


not  certain  that  they  were  of  English  fabric.  Several  large  jugs  are 
known  with  the  arms  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  one  of  which  lias  the  arms  and 
name  three  times  repeated,  and  date  1594.      Another,  however,  has  the 

same  arms  and  date,  with  the  arms 
of  Cologne  also. 

In  the  course  of  the  seventeenth 
century  the  making  of  stone- ware 
was  commenced  at  Lambeth,  and 
possibly  at  Fulham.  It  was  not  in- 
troduced into  Staffordshire  till  the 
latter  part  of  the  century,  but,  once 
commenced  there,  was  rapidly  im- 
proved. Before  this  time,  common 
classes  of  soft  pottery  had  been  dec- 
orated in  various  colors,  but  known 
specimens  cannot  be  assigned  to  a 
period  before  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century. 

Staffordshire,  the  clay  country, 
had  been  the  seat  of  potteries  from  the  earliest  times.  The  Staffordshire 
butter-pots,  in  which  butter  was  sold  in  the  markets,  were  of  coarse  pot- 
tery, but  their  size  and  quality  were  so  important  that  an  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment, in  1001,  regulated  them  to  hold  fourteen  pounds  of  butter.  They 
were  14^  inches  high  by  0^  in  di- 
ameter, weighing  not  above  six 
pounds;  and  it  was  ordered  that 
they  be  of  material  so  hard  as  not 
to  take  in  moisture  and  increase 
their  weight.  On  some  are  found, 
in  relief,  the  names  of  Richard  Cart- 
wright  and  his  son,  who  were  pot- 
ters at  Burslem  from  1040  to  1715, 
and,  doubtless,  honest  men  who  put 
their  names  on  their  wares  because 
people  trusted  them. 

The  English  potters  began,  in 
the  seventeenth  century,  to  produce 
work  resembling  the  Delft  wares. 
These,  which  had  been  largely  imported,  and  were  now  extensively  cop- 
ied in  England,  were  beginning  to  take  the  place  of  pewter,  and  even  of 


206.  Staffordshire  Posset-pot,  decorated  with 
clays  of  various  colors. 


ENGLAND.  315 


wood,  in  domestic  use,  and  the  word  "delft"  or  "  delf  "  soon  entered  into 
the  English  language  as  about  synonymous  with  what  we  call  crockery. 
Mugs  and  dishes  were  painted  with  subjects  in  blue,  with  arms,  mottoes, 
and  with  names  of  owners.  "Anne  Chapman,  1649,"  owned  a  mug  now 
in  the  South  Kensington  Museum.  "Bee  merry  and  wise,  1660,"  says 
another.  Jugs  or  bottles  of  white  enamelled  pottery  had,  painted  in  blue, 
the  names  of  liquors,  such  as  Sack  and  Claret,  usually  with  a  date,  be- 
tween 1640  and  1660. 

The  Delft  wares  were  made  in  Liverpool,  as  well  as  in  Staffordshire, 
and  probably  in  other  parts  of  the  country.  The  pottery  was  covered 
with  a  wash  of  white  clay,  which  had  a  slight  tint  of  blue  or  green,  and  on 
this  the  decoration  was  painted,  most  frequently  in  blue,  and  the  whole 
was  then  glazed.  This  ware  was  made  till  quite  late  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  some  of  it  is  found  in  America,  especially  in  New  England. 
The  prevalence  of  the  blue-and-white  ware  has  perhaps  led  to  the  making 
of  an  old  story  of  a  merry  master-potter  who  was  given  to  fiddling  and 
rhyming,  who,  when  his  workman  asked  instructions  for  finishing  ware, 
would  say  or  sing, 

"  Tip  it  wi'  blue, 
An'  then  it  '11  do." 

Puzzle-jugs  are  among  the  relics  of  the  pottery  of  the  seventeenth  and 
early  eighteenth  century,  which  were  so  constructed  that  when  lifted  to 
the  lips  they  emptied  their  contents  by  a  secret  passage  (111.  240).  There 
were  generally  three  spouts  from  the  rim,  the  handles  and  rim  being  hol- 
low. If  the  drinker  covered  two  of  the  spouts  with  his  fingers,  he  could 
drink  with  safety.  Mottoes  and  homely  rhymes  were  often  on  them. 
One  has  this : 

From  mother  earth  i  took  my  birth, 
Then  formd  a  Jug  by  Man, 
And  now  stand  here,  rilled  with  good  cheer: 
Taste  of  me  if  vou  can. 


Another : 


Another 


Here,  gentlemen,  come  try  yr  skill. 
I'll  hold  a  wager,  if  you  will, 
That  you  don't  drink  this  liqr  all 
Without  you  spill  or  lett  some  fall. 

The  ale  is  good,  taste. 


Posset  was  a  fearful  mixture  except  to  those  who  liked  it.  Hot  ale, 
milk,  sugar,  spices,  bits  or  slices  of  bread  or  of  oatcake,  went  to  make  it. 
It  was  used  on  Christmas-eve,  and  the  posset-pot  (111.  206)  kept  for  this 


316 


rorn:i;y  and  porcelain  of  England. 


annual   occasion   had   small  chance  to  be  broken,  and  was   passed  down 


from  generation  to  generation. 


A  coin  and  the  mother's  wedding-ring 


207.  Tablet  on  a  House  at  Burs 
lem. 


were  dropped  in  it.  The  posset  was  drunk  from  a  spoon.  Whoso  took 
up  the  coin  had  good -luck  for  the  coming  year,  and  the  ring  foretold 
marriage. 

"Wares  decorated  with  color  and  glazed  were  made  at  an  early  period, 
but  known  dates  commence  in  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  There  is  an  old  house  be- 
longing to  the  Wedgwood  family  on  which  a 
pottery  tablet  (111.  207),  with  raised  yellow  dots. 
records  the  building  in  1G75.  Mottled  wares, 
made  of  mixed  clays,  were  probably  an  early 
manufacture.  Some  of  the  old  grave}7ards  in 
and  near  the  pottery  districts  contain  interesting 
relics  in  the  shape  of  mortuary  tablets,  memo- 
rials of  the  good  folk,  perhaps  potters  and  their 
families,  of  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. These  are  in  soft  pottery,  unglazed,  glazed,  and  marbled  or  mot- 
tled, illustrating  varieties  of  wares. 

The  district  in  Staffordshire  known  as  "The  Potteries"  includes 
Tunstall,  Longport,  Burslem,  Cobridge,  Hanley,  Shelton,  Etruria,  Stoke, 
Fcnton,  Lane  Delph,  Lane  End,  and  several  other  seats  of  potteries  less 
known,  all  these  lying  adjoining, 
and  now  forming  an  almost  contin- 
uous city,  for  a  distance  of  ten  miles 
from  the  extreme  end  in  one  direc- 
tion to  that  in  the  other.  Early 
potteries  abounded  here.  Butter- 
pots  and  tygs  are  the  earliest  of 
the  known  Staffordshire  wares.  At 
what  period  the  manufacture  of 
glazed  wares  with  color  .decoration 
began  is  unknown.  The  earliest 
products  of  this  sort  which  arc  iden- 
tified were  made  about  1670-'80.  A 
large  dish  in  the  Museum  of  Prac- 
tical Geology  has  a  buff -colored 
ground,  in  the  centre  a  rampant  lion  crowned,  sundry  ornaments  around 
him,  a  trellis-work  border,  all  laid  on  in  black  and  brown  clay  slip,  the 
name  Thomas  Toft  appearing  in  large  letters  on  the  rim.     Another  dish. 


2i)8.  Mortuary  Tablet:  light-brown  glazed 
potters. 


ENGLAND. 


317 


209.  Mortuary  Tablet :  marbled  pottery ;  glazed 


(111.  211)  has  a  crowned  portrait  of  Charles  II.     Another  has  a  mermaid; 

and  a  fourth  a  portrait. 
Similar  dishes  bear  the 

name  of  Ralph  Toft.     On 

one    of    these    is    the    date 

1676 ;  and  on  another,  1677. 

Other  dishes   of  the  same 

class    have    the    name    of 

William  Sans  ;  and  a  sim- 
ilar one,  with  two  full-length. 

figures  of  a  gentleman  and 

lady  in  the  costume  of  the 

Stuarts,  lias  between  them 

the   initials  TV.  T.,  and  on 

the  rim  the  name  William 

Talok.    All  these  dishes  are 

lead -glazed,  and  date  from 

1670  to  1680. 

The    name    of    Ralph 

Turnoe  is  found  on  an  old 

four-handled  tyg,  not  certainly  Staffordshire  ware.      A  tyg,  buff-colored, 

with  designs  in  brown  slip,  resembling  the  Toft  dishes,  has  the  name  of 

Joseph  Glass,  who  was  a  pot- 
ter at  Ilanley  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  seventeenth  and 
beginning  of  the  eighteenth 
century. 

About  1680,  the  art  of 
glazing  pottery  with  salt  was 
accidentally  discovered  at 
Stanley  farm,  near  Bagnall. 
A  servant  of  Mr.  J.  Yale,  or 
Yates,  was  preparing  in  an 
earthen  pot,  over  the  fire, 
brine  to  cure  pork,  and,  hav- 
ing left  it,  during  her  absence 
the  liquid  boiled  over,  and 
the  pot  became  red-hot.  The 
sides  of  the  earthenware  were 
This  accident  led  to  the  adoption  of  the  salt  glaze 


210.  Mortuary  Tablet :  unglazed  red  pottery.     Inscrip 

tioii  white  relief. 


found  to  be  glazed. 


318 


POTTERY  AND    PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 


by  a  neighboring  potter,  a  Mr.  Palmer.     It  is  effected  by  the  simple  proc- 
ess of  throwing  salt  into  the  furnace  when  the  wares  are  fully  heated.    lie 

applied  it  to  the  common 
brown  wares  which  he 
made,  and  it  was  imme- 
diately adopted  by  other 
potters. 

"Where  white  and  gray 
wares  were  made,  the  salt 
glaze  was  used  for  them, 
and  a  very  interesting  class 
of  old  English  potteries 
are  the  salt -glazed  stone- 
wares. They  were  after- 
ward moulded  with  ex- 
treme care,  in  styles  re- 
sembling silver  wares,  and 
sometimes  apparently  in 
moulds  prepared  from  met- 
al pieces.  Their  manufac- 
ture was  continued  in  va- 
rious potteries  for  a  long  time  after  the  use  of  enamel  was  introduced. 
The  name  of  "  Crouch  ware"  was  given  to 
them,  and  they  have  also  been  erroneously 
called  "  Elizabethan  ware.''  Specimens  are 
not  uncommon  in  America,  but  are  gener- 
ally of  late  periods.  Many  country-houses 
have  mugs,  teapots,  and  other  articles  of 
white  salt-glazed  wares,  with  relief  borders, 
sometimes  colored  in  green  or  yellow. 

About  1690,  at  Bradwell,  the  first  pot- 
tery was  established  which  has  importance 
in  the  art  history  in  England.  John  Philip 
Elers,  who  came  over  with  the  Prince  of 
Orange,  was  a  man  of  good  family.  His 
grandfather,  an  admiral,  had  married  a 
princess  of  the  Baden  family.  His  father  212.  White  Salt-glazed  or  Crouch-ware 
was  ambassador  from  Holland  to   various 

European  courts.     He  is  said  to  have  been  a  man  of  ability  and  some 
chemical  and  mechanical  knowledge.     lie  was  the  first  inventor  of  new 


211.  Early  Staffordshire  Dish. 


ENGLAND. 


319 


213.  White  Salt-glazed  or  Crouch-ware  Dish. 


styles  of  pottery,  in  the  long  list  of  inventors  who  have  made  England 
famous,  and  to  him  is  accorded  the  honor  of  leading  the  art  out  of  semi- 
barbarism  into  its  track  of  later  splendor.  Possibly  an  exception  should 
be  made  in  favor  of  Dr. 
Dwight,  of  Fulham  ;  but 
whatever  he  accomplished 
seems  to  have  perished 
with  him,  and  had  no  vis- 
ible succession  or  influence 
on  English  art. 

With  John  Philip  Elers 
was  associated  his  brother 
David.  They  introduced 
good  patterns  of  pottery 
wares,  fine  ornaments  from 
well -cut  moulds,  and  at 
length  discovered  how  to 
make  imitations  of  the  red  wares  of  Japan,  which  had  made  their  appear- 
ance in  the  English  market.  These  they  made  from  a  clay  they  found 
near  Bradwell,  which  they  worked  with  great  skill  and  care.  Their  pieces 
were  decorated  like  the  Japanese,  with  small  ornaments  in  relief,  were 
beautiful  in  shape,  even  and  fine  in  surface.  They  also  made  black  wares, 
which  were  the  forerunners  of  the  basaltes  of  Wedgwood.  They  pre- 
served the  secret  of  their  wares  with 
great  caution ;  it  is  even  said  they 
employed  only  the  most  stupid  and 
semi -idiotic  workmen.  Tradition 
says  that  a  potter,  Astbury,  of  Burs- 
lem,  feigned  idiocy,  obtained  em- 
ployment from  them,  and  after  some 
years  of  work,  making  private  notes 
and  drawings  of  machinery,  and- 
learning  all  the  processes,  left  them 
and  established  a  pottery. 

Another  potter,  Twyford  by 
name,  became  possessed  of  their  se- 
crets, and  others  soon  acquired  them.  The  Elers  brothers,  finding  now 
many  rivals,  ceased  work  about  1710,  and  went  to  London,  where,  it  is 
said,  they  were  concerned  in  some  way  with  the  founding  of  the  Chelsea 
porcelain  works.  A  granddaughter  of  John  Philip  Elers  was  the  mother 
of  Maria  Edffeworth. 


214.  Elers  Ware. 


320 


POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN   OF  ENGLAND. 


The  influence  of  Elers  on  the  Staffordshire  potteries  was  immediate. 
They  began  to  make  wares  in  better  forms  and  with  better  decoration. 
If  is  impossible  to  assign  unmarked  wares  of  the  time  to  particular  makers, 
for  rivalry  in  trade  led  every  one  to  copy  whatever  his  neighbor  produced 
that  was  popular.  Marks  were  not  in  use  to  identify  wares.  In  1720, 
a  Shelton  potter,  Astbury,  who  had  robbed  the  Elerses  of  their  secret,  or 
his  son  Thomas,  or,  as  Mr.  Wedgwood  states  in  one  of  his  letters,  a  potter 
named  Heath,  while  stopping  at  an  inn  on  a  journey,  asked  the  hostler 
to  do  something  for  his  horse,  whose  eyes  were  sore.  The  hostler  heated 
a  flint,  threw  it  into  water,  pulverized  it  to  a  fine  white  powder,  and 
applied  it.  Whether  the  horse  was  helped  does  not  appear;  but  Astbury 
had  discovered  the  white  flint  stone-ware  made  by  the  use  of  pulverized 
flint,  always  afterward  of  great  importance  in  pottery.     Mixed  with  sand 

and  clay,  and  colored  with  man- 
ganese, copper,  and  other  mate- 
rials, it  also  produced  the  "  ag- 
ate" and  "tortoise-shell"  wares, 
which  were  manufactured  with 
great  success. 

An  English  potter,  visiting 
Paris  at  this  time,  learned  that 
pi aster-of -Paris  could  be  used  for 
taking  casts  and  making  moulds, 
wdiich  in  England  had  before 
been  expensively  cut.  This  en- 
abled the  potters  to  mould  pieces  of  the  new  wares  in  relief,  and  to  mould 
reliefs  for  application  to  any  pottery.  The  paste  made  with  flint  was  col- 
ored in  a  variety  of  shades — brown,  drab,  and  cream-color, 

In  1733,  Ralph  Shaw,  a  Burslem  potter,  took  out  a  patent  for  making 
a  salt-glazed  ware,  chocolate  color,  striped  with  white  outside,  and  inside 
white.  His  method  was  nothing  more  than  covering  interiors  with  a 
white  wash,  and  exteriors  with  a  slip  of  flint  and  pipe -clay.  This  Mr. 
Shaw  annoyed  his  neighbors  by  frequent  accusations  of  violations  of  his 
patent,  and  did  at  length  commence  a  suit,  which  the  potters  united  in  de- 
fending. It  came  to  trial  before  a  jury  at  Stafford  in  1736,  and  the  pot- 
ters proved  the  history  of  the  process,  showing  that  it  Avas  practised  by 
Astbury  before  Shaw.  The  jury  found  for  the  defendant,  and  the  judge 
dismissed  a  court-room  crowded  with  waiting  ceramists  of  Staffordshire 
with  the  memorable  utterance,  "Go  home,  potters,  and  make  whatever 
kind  of  pots  you  please/''     They  obeyed  the  advice  ;   and  the  improve- 


215.  Elers-ware  Teapot. 


ENGLAND.  321 


ments  in  the  art,  which  had  been  repressed  by  fear  of  the  patent-holder, 
went  rapidly  forward. 

New  jDastes,  and  new  varieties  of  old  pastes,  were  introduced  ;  and 
from  time  to  time  since  then  English  potters  have  produced  many  wares, 
which  may  be  said  to  lie  midway  between  pottery  and  porcelain,  but  which 
must  be  classed  as  stone-wares  under  hard  pottery. 

The  Wedgwoods  were  a  family  of  potters  at  Bukslem.  Aaron  AVedg- 
wood  was  a  potter  there  in  the  seventeenth  century.  His  son,  Dr.  Thomas 
Wedgwood,  made  the  common  wares  of  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century;  and  his  grandson,  Thomas  Wedgwood,  junior,  made  varieties  of 
"marble,"  of  "agate,"  "cauliflower,"  and  "melon"  wares  —  names  given 
to  fabrics  which  were  decorated  in  imitation  of  these  stones  and  veg-eta- 
bles,  and  made  by  many  of  the  potters  of  the  time.  Richard  Wedgwood, 
another  son  of  Aaron  Wedgwood,  made  stone-wares. 

Aaron  Wedgwood,  junior,  son  of  the  first  Aaron,  was  a  potter  at  Burs- 
lem  till  1743.  Shaw  ("Chemistry  of  Pottery")  says  that  in  1690  he  im- 
proved the  Crouch  ware,  originally  made  of  common  potter's  clay  and 
"grit  from  Mow-cop,"  by  using  marl  instead  of  the  clay.  His  son,  Aaron 
Wedgwood  the  third,  succeeded  him,  and,  with  his  brother-in-law,  William 
Littler,  niade  experiments  in  porcelain. 

Thomas  and  John  Wedgwood,  sons  of  the  second  Aaron,  first  em- 
ployed by  their  father,  made  pottery  on  their  own  account  about  1710,  re- 
tiring in  17<>9.  Thomas  afterward  was  a  partner  with  Josiah  Wedgwood. 
His  son,  Ralph  Wedgwood,  was  an  in- 
genious man,  of  scientific  tastes.  Ab<  mt 
17i>0  he  made  pottery,  the  firm  name 
being  Wp:dgwood  &  Co.  In  1814,  this 
Ralph  Wedgwood  invented  an  electric 
telegraph,  which  he  urged  on  the  Gov- 
ernment without  success.  lie  pub- 
lished a  pamphlet  on  this  invention, 
dated  May  29th,  1815,  which  seems  to 
have  escaped  notice,  in  the  many  dis- 
cussions and  suits  at  law  relating  to  210.  Josiah  Wedgwood's  first  Teapot,  [no- 
Professor  Morse's  invention.  His  claim  scrved  at  Etruria' 
is  the  only  one  of  which  we  have  knowledge  which  is  in  the  express 
terms  of  Professor  Morse's  claim — to  wit,  the  invention  of  the  actual  op- 
eration of  "writing  at  a  distance."  lie  states  that  by  his  invention  "fac- 
similes of  a  despatch  written  as,  for  instance,  in  London, may  with  facility 
be  written  also  in  Plymouth,  Dover,  Hull,  Leith,  Liverpool,  and  Bristol,  or 

21 


322 


POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN   OF  ENGLAND. 


any  other  place,  by  the  same  person,  and  by  one  and  the  same  act.  While 
this  invention  proposes  to  remove  the  usual  impediments  and  imperfec- 
tions of  telegraphs,  it  gives  the  rapidity  of  lightning  to  correspondence 
when  and  wherever  we  wish,  and  renders  null  the  principal  disadvantages 
of  distance  to  correspondents."  Lord  Castlereagh,  on  behalf  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, declined  the  offer  of  the  inventor  on  the  ground,  substantially, 
that  Waterloo  had  rendered  it  unnecessary  to  improve  the  old  telegraph 


217.  Mr.  Thomas  Bentlcy.     Wedgwood  medallion :  jasper-ware.     White  on  blue. 

system.  Could  he  have  looked  forward  to  the  year  1877,  when  England 
depends  on  regular  telegrams  from  the  heart  of  Asia  and  from  her  Indian 
possessions,  he  would  perhaps  have  decided  to  look  into  it. 

Other  Wedgwoods  were  potters  in  Burslem,  but  there  is  no  interest 
connected  with  any  of  them  except  Josiah  Wedgwood. 

Thk  Wakes  of  Wedgwood. — The  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century 
found  the  potter's  art  in  England  ready  for  instruction.     Porcelain  had 


ENGLAND.  323 


been  made  at  Bow  about  1740-'43 ;  at  Chelsea,  about  1745 ;  at  Derby  and 
at  Worcester,  in  1751.  But  in  England,  as  on  the  Continent,  there  was 
very  little  that  was  new  in  the  art.  The  porcelain  factories  were  content 
to  reproduce  what  had  been  done  in  China  and  on  the  Continent.  The 
pottery-makers  had  ample  sale  for  the  ordinary  useful  articles  which  they 
made  in  soft  pottery  and  in  salt-glazed  stone-ware,  and  for  their  copies 
and  imitations  of  the  Delft,  which  were  mostly  copies  of  the  Chinese. 
There  was,  however,  a  vast  deal  of  energy  and  enterprise  in  the  trade, 
and  it  was  the  moment  for  a  great  leader.  It  remained  to  be  shown  that 
the  highest  art  of  sculpture  was  applicable  to  the  potter's  work. 

J  osiah  Wedgwood,  the  youngest  of  thirteen  children  of  Thomas  Wedg- 
wood, was  born  at  Burslem  in  1730.  At  fourteen  years  old,  in  1744,  he 
was  apprenticed  to  his  brother  Thomas,  who  had  succeeded  their  father 
in  the  business.  His  apprenticeship  expired  in  1749,  but  he  worked  with 
his  brother  for  some  time,  and  then  removed  to  Stoke,  where  he  estab- 
lished a  small  business  in  making  earthenware,  knife -handles,  agate  and 
tortoise-shell  wares,  and  where,  in  1752,  he  entered  into  partnership  with 
John  Harrison  in  a  pottery.  Two  years  later,  in  1754,  he  formed  a  part- 
nership with  Thomas  Whieldon,  an  experienced  potter,  and  this  firm  con- 
tinued for  five  years  at  Fenton  Low.  Their  fabrics  were  various,  but 
chiefly  such  as  Wedgwood  had  been  making,  and  cauliflower  and  melon 
wares.  Wedgwood's  attention  was  directed  to  the  coloring  of  wares,  and 
during  this  time  he  invented  a  rich  green  glaze  for  dishes  made  in  leaf 
and  fruit  patterns.  In  1759  he  returned  to  Burslem,  and  commenced  bus- 
iness alone  in  the  "  Church-yard  Works,"  where  he  had  learned  his  trade 
as  an  apprentice.  Here  he  built  up  his  fame  and  fortune.  In  1708,  he 
took  into  partnership,  only  in  the  ornamental  branches  of  the  work, 
Thomas  Bentley,  of  Liverpool,  who  had  been  his  agent  in  that  city,  and 
who  was  eminently  fitted,  by  taste  and  knowledge  of  the  business  and  of 
art,  to  be  his  associate. 

In  1769,  the  factory  was  removed  to  new  works,  which  Mr.  Wedg- 
wood had  erected,  on  a  large  scale,  near  Burslem,  and  to  which  he  gave 
the  name  Etruria. 

In  1780,  Mr.  Bentley  died.  About  1781,  Flaxman  was  engaged  as  an 
artist  to  make  designs  or  models.  In  1790,  John,  Josiah,  and  Thomas, 
sons  of  Mr.  Wedgwood,  and  Thomas  Byerley,  his  nephew,  were  taken  into 
the  firm,  under  the  name  "Josiah  Wedgwood,  Sons,  &  Byerley.''  Josiah 
Wedgwood, senior,  died  January  3d,  17ii.">. 

In  1800,  the  firm  consisted  of  Josiah  Wedgwood  (the  son)  and  Thomas 
Byerley.     In  181«>,  Byerley  died.     In  1823,  Josiah  Wedgwood  (the  son) 


324 


POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN   OF  ENGLAND. 


took  into  partnership  his  eldest  son,  Josiah,  and  tlie  firm  name  was  "  Jo- 
siah  Wedgwood  &  Son."  Under  this  name,  changed  to  "Josiah  Wedg- 
wood &  Sons,"  the  business  is  still  carried  on  by  the  descendants  of  the 
great  Josiah. 

This  sketch  of  the  history  of  the  Wedgwood  factory  is  important. 
The  work  made  by  the  founder  himself  is,  of  course,  prized  for  histor- 
ical reasons ;  but  the  death  of  the  first  Josiah  did  not  affect  the  artistic 


218.  Mrs.  Wedgwood.    Jasper  medallion,  by  Flaxman. 

character  which  he  had  stamped  on  the  products  of  Etruria.  Wedgwood 
ware  was  equally  beautiful  for  a  long  time  after  his  decease;  and  while 
in  some  styles  the  modern  work  is  not  equal  to  the  old,  in  other  depart- 
ments it  is  fully  as  artistic,  and  in  not  a  few  superior. 

To  Josiah  Wedgwood  the  ceramic  art  in  modern  times  owes  more 
than  to  any  other  person.  He  was  a  man  of  remarkable  energy  .oid 
great  shrewdness  in  his  business.  Having  had  no  education,  he  neverthe- 
less appreciated  art,  and  his  need  of  knowledge  as  the  tool  to  accomplish 
the  object  which  he  kept  constantly  before  him.  This  object  was  to  be 
successful  in  his  business,  by  producing,  as   had  never  been  done,  the 


ENGLAND. 


325 


beautiful  and  the  useful,  and  thus  creatine;  a  trade  in  the  products  of  the 
potter's  furnace  which  had  not  before  existed.  He  pursued  this  object 
throughout  a  long  and  successful  life,  becoming  the  benefactor  of  the 
people  who  surrounded  him,  and  revolutionizing  the  ceramic  art  in  Eu- 
rope. The  world  is  under  as  great  obligation  to  him  for  the  present  ad- 
vanced state  of  artistic  taste  and  knowledge  in  Europe  and  America  as 
to  any  artist  or  author  of  the  last  or  present  century.  Having  cultivated 
his  own  taste  by  study,  adding  constantly  to  his  store  of  artistic  knowl- 
edge, watching  withal  the  varying  moods  of  popular  taste,  and  ingeniously 
leading  and  guiding  these  moods,  he  made  the  most  exquisite  products  of 
the  sculptor's  art  in  all  ages  familiar  to  every  household,  so  that  the  work- 
men in  English  shops  and  laborers  in  the  fields  could  use,  for  buttons  and 
ornaments,  gems  of  the  glyptic  art  of  the  best  ancient  artists. 

He  began  life,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  humblest  way.  He  increased 
his  small  trade  at  Stoke  by  making  black -glazed  ware,  and  plates  and 
dishes  of  a  kind  commonly  called  tortoise-shell  wTare.  It  was  a  soft  pot- 
tery, colored  with  brown  and  yellow  glaze,  in  which  other  colors  were  also 
visible.  Other  potters 
were  making  the  same 
wares.  His  first  ambi- 
tion was  to  excel  the 
others  in  the  ordinary 
products  of  the  shop ; 
and,  after  doing  this,  he  J? 
invented  new  wares. 

Cream -ware,    or 
cream  -  color   ware,  was 

-,       .       -r-,       ,        n    ,  219.  Wedgwood  Cream-color  Basket-dish. 

made  in  England  long 

before  Wedgwood's  day.  It  was  first  made  from  a  mixture  of  marl  and 
flint,  and  improved  by  various  manufacturers  from  time  to  time.  Wedg- 
wood introduced  Cornwall  clay  in  the  composition,  improved  the  methods 
of  manufacture,  and  gave  it  a  pure  and  unequalled  glaze.  The  color  of 
his  ware  varies  from  a  light-straw  to  a  deep-saffron  yellow.  In  1718,  lie 
wrote  to  his  clerk  in  London,  "I  endeavor  to  make  it  as  pale  as  possible 
to  continue  it  cream-color,  and  find  my  customers  in  general,  though  not 
every  individual  of  them,  think  the  alteration  I  have  made  in  that  re- 
spect a  great  improvement.  But  it  is  impossible  that  any  one  color,  even 
though  it  were  to  come  down  from  heaven,  should  please  every  taste, 
and  I  cannot  regularly  make  two  cream-colors,  a  deep  and  light  shade, 
without  having  two  works  for  that  purpose."     The  cream- ware  was  lired 


32G 


pottery  and  ronrELAis  of  England. 


220.  Wedgwood  Cream-coior  vv  are. 


twice,  being  (lipped  in  the  glaze  after  the  first  firing.     The  glaze  was  a 
composition  of  flint,  lead,  and  earthy  matter,  and  is  in  reality  a  pure  glass. 

The  cream-ware  was  sold  im- 
decorated,  or  with  paintings,  or 
with  transfer  prints.  It  is  a  cu- 
rious fact  that  as  Wedgwood  had 
no  means  of  doing  the  printing, 
the  undecorated  ware  was  sent 
to  Liverpool,  to  Sadler  &  Green, 
once  a  fortnight,  there  to  receive 
the  transfer  prints,  and  brought 
back  to  Burslem  for  the  final 
baking. 
The  cream-ware  changed  its  name  to  queen's- ware  when  a  service  was 
made  for  the  queen.  In  1762,  Wedgwood  presented  a  caudle  and  break- 
fast service  to  Queen  Charlotte,  who  liked 
it  so  well  that  she  ordered  a  complete 
table  service  of  the  same  ware.  Patterns 
were  submitted  to  her,  and  on  her  ap- 
proval the  pattern  chosen  was  called 
"Queen's  Pattern."  The  king  then  or- 
dered a  service  with  slight  variation,  and 
this  was  called  the  "  Royal  Pattern."  This 
may  be  regarded  as  the  foundation  of 
Wedgwood's  pecuniary  success.  Orders  poured  in  on  him.  With  increased 
means,  he  was  at  liberty  to  make  more  expensive  experiments.  He  im- 
proved the  queen's -ware 
while  he  was  seeking  new 
bodies.  He  employe*  1  g<  »<  >d 
artists.  While  the  paint- 
ing, especially  of  leaves 
and  Hewers,  was  well  exe- 
cuted, the  great  beauty  of 
this  ware  is  in  those  deli- 
cate and  exquisite  borders, 
in  monochrome,  which 
have  wonderful  effect  on 
the  soft  background  of 
the  glaze.  Simplicity  is  a 
prominent  characteristic   of  the  Wedgwood   decorations.     At  the   same 


221.  Wedgwood  Cream-color  or  Queen's 
Ware. 


222.   Wedgwood  Cream-color  Ware.     Cup  and  saucer,  with 
autumn  leaves. 


ENGLAND. 


327 


time,  beauty  of  form  was  so  carefully  studied  that  the  undecorated  ware 
presents  many  of  the  most  desirable  specimens  for  collections. 

Black  ware  had  long  been  made  in  England.  In  1766,  Wedgwood  in- 
vented a  body,  composed  of  clay,  iron-stone,  ochre, 
and  oxide  of  manganese,  which  he  called  "a  fine 
black  porcelain,"  and  to  which  he  gave  the  name  ba- 
saltes.  From  this  he  formed  vases,  busts,  table  ser- 
vices, seals,  medallions,  bas-reliefs,  and  articles  in  va- 
rious forms.  Specimens  are  found  in  two  shades  of 
black,  some  having  a  polished,  others  a  dead  surface. 
The  polish  was  produced  in  two  ways — on  the  lathe, 
and  by  the  use  of  a  lustre  varnish  baked  in.  The  lat- 
ter are  the  older  pieces.  Black  vases  of  this  body 
were  painted  in  Greek  style,  with  encaustic  colors 
baked  in,  and  are  called  Etruscan.  The  use  of  the 
engine-lathe  in  potteries  was  an  idea  of  Wedgwood, 
and  enabled  him  to  produce  such  effects  that  his  ex- 
ample was  soon  followed,  and  the  use  became  com- 
mon. 

About  1763,  Wedgwood  had  turned  his  attention 
to  improving  wares  which  were  made  in  variegated 
colors  resembling  various  minerals.  It  had  been  ens-  223-  Wedgwood  Antique 
tomary  to  paint  objects  with  colored  clays,  and  Wedg-  ase*  "  e  on  ac  ' 
wood  in  his  earliest  work  followed  this  custom,  but  afterward  adopted  the 
plan  of  intermingling  the  clays  in  the  paste,  so  that  the  body  of  the  article 
should  be  veined  with  colors.  He  continued  to  use  both  processes.  He 
called  these  wares  "  Pebble  Wares,"  and  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Bentley,  in 
1770,  suggested  a  series  of  subdivisions :  "  Suppose  we  call  those  barely 
sprinkled  with  blue,  and  ornaments  gilt,  Granite  ;  when  veined  with  black, 
Veined  Granite ;  with  gold,  Lapis  Lazuli ;  with  colors  and  veined,  Varie- 
gated Pebble ;  those  with  colors  and  veined  without  any  blue  sprinkling, 
Egyptian  Pebble."  The  varieties  of  the  pebble  ware  as  now  known  are, 
Serpentine,  gray  and  green  ;  Agate,  brown  and  yellow,  with  sometimes 
gray  and  white;  Verd  -  antique,  dark  green,  gray,  and  black  ;  Green  Jas- 
per, green  and  gray;  Gray  Granite,  white  and  black  ;  Red  Porphyry,  white 
on  red.  In  these  wares  were  produced  vases,  candlesticks,  flower -pots, 
plates,  and  other  objects. 

But  the  greatest  of  Wedgwood's  improvements  was  the  invention  of 
the  pastes  commonly  called  "  Jasper-ware."  This  was  a  subject  of  much 
study  and  labor  with  him,  and  the  composition  varied  from  time  to  time. 


328 


POTTERY  AND    PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 


224.  Wedgwood  Cameo:    jasper.     White  on  pale  blue 
(T.-P.  Coll.) 


In  1774,  lie  announced  "a  fine  white  terra-cotta  of  great  beauty  and  del- 
icacy, proper  for  cameos,  por- 
traits, and  bas-reliefs,"  and  in  the 

1787  edition  of  his  catalogue  he 
thus  describes  it:  "Jasper,  a 
white -porcelain  bisque  of  ex- 
quisite beauty  and  delicacy,  pos- 
sessing the  general  qualities  of 
the  basaltes,  together  with  that 
of  receiving  colors  through  its 
whole  substance  in  a  manner 
which  no  other  dody,  ancient  or  modern,  has  been  known  to  do." 

In  the  same  catalogue,  of  1787  (which  does  not  include  his  queen's- 
ware),  he  mentions  various  "bodies"  or  compositions  in 
which  his  work  was  executed,  as  (1)  Terra-cotta,  resembling- 
porphyry,  granite,  Egyptian  pebble,  and  other  beautiful 
stones  of  the  siliceous  or  crystalline  order;  (2)  Basaltes,  a 
fine  black-porcelain  bisque ;  (3)  White-porcelain  bisque,  the 
same  as  No.  2,  except  in  color;  (4)  Jasper  (described  as 
above  quoted);  (5)  Bamboo  or  cane  colored  bisque  porcelain 
of  the  same  nature  as  No.  3 ;  (6)  A  porcelain  bisque  of  ex- 
treme hardness,  little  inferior  to  that  of  agate,  resisting  22^.  Wedgwood 
the  strongest  acids  and  corrosives,  impenetrable  to  every 
known  liquid,  adapted  to  mortars  and  chemical  vessels. 

In  addition  to  these  wares  he  produced  a  red  ware,  on  which  he  ex- 
perimented, varying  the  tint,  but  never  reaching  a  high  de- 
gree of  beauty  except  in  specimens  of  red  on  black,  which 
are  admirable.  lie  also  made  an  ordinary  earthenware  of 
a  very  pure  white  color,  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of 
"  Pearl-ware." 

In  1777,  he  introduced  the  use  of  his  "jasper  wash," 
which  consisted  in  covering  only  the  surface  of  the  ware; 
with  the  colored  paste.  It  would  seem,  from  a  letter  of 
Wedgwood  to  Bentley,  that  his  object  was  economy,  or,  per- 
haps, rather  to  use  a  more  expensive  cobalt,  and  thus  give  a 
liner  surface  color  without  increase  of  cost. 

The  jasper  medallions  were  of  various  sizes,  and  for  an 
226.    Wedgwood   infinite  variety  of  purposes,  ornamental   and  useful.     The 
Vase:    jasper.   sma]]or  cameos  were  sold  set  in  steel  and  gold  mountings, 

\\  lute   on  paie  D  " 

green  or  unset,  for  buttons,  seals,  watch-keys,  lockets,  and  other 


Ear-ring  Drop: 
jasper. 


ENGLAND. 


329 


trinkets,  or  for  furniture  to  be  inlaid.  Large  plaques  in  bas-relief  were 
made  for  chimney-pieces  and  other  architectural  uses,  for  ornamenting 
cabinets  and  bookcases,  and  for  framing  as  cabinet  pictures.  The  sizes 
of  the  plaques  and  medallions  varied  from  the  smallest,  less  than  an  inch 
in  diameter,  up  to  twelve  by  twenty-seven  inches.  The  1787  catalogue 
states  that  the  buttons  were  "  worn  by  the  nobility  in  different  parts  of 
Europe."  Lady  Diana  Beauclerc  and  Lady  Templeton  allowed  Mr. 
Wedgwood  to  use  original  designs  by  themselves,  some  of  his  reproduc- 
tions of  which  are  among  his  most  esteemed  work.  Various  groups  of 
boys  by  Lady  Beauclerc ;    Do- 


mestic Employment,  Sportive 
Love,  Charlotte  at  the  tomb  of 
Werther,  Contemplation,  all  by 
Lady  Templeton,  are  among 
these.  Heads  and  busts  were 
made  in  black  basaltes  and  in 
jasper.  One  series  of  253  heads 
of  popes  were  made  in  small 
cameos  of  jasper ;  another  series 
of  63  kings  of  France,  another 
of  kings  of  England. 

While  the  smaller  articles 
were  cheap,  and  placed  the 
most  exquisite  works  of  art 
within  reach  of  every  class,  the 
larger  articles  were  proportion- 
ately cheap.  The  prices  of 
heads  were  from  one  shilling 
to  a  guinea  each.  Vases  in 
the  terra-cotta  ware  resembling 

stones,  and  varying  from  six  to  twenty  inches  in  height,  were  from  seven 
and  sixpence  to  three  guineas.  They  were  made  in  sets  of  five,  at  from 
two  to  six  guineas  the  set.  The  small  cameos  were  sold  at  sixpence,  and 
cheaper  when  in  sets.  The  series  of  popes  were  sold  in  sets  at  threepence 
each.  Wedgwood  advertised  that  he  would  model  portraits  in  wax  for 
any  desiring  them,  three  to  six  inches  in  diameter,  at  from  three  to  live 
guineas  each,  and  furnish  any  number  of  copies  in  jasper-ware  at  a  half- 
guinea  each. 

Wedgwood  was  a  man  of  artistic  taste  as  well  as  a  practical  potter. 
He  knew  what  was  beautiful  in  form,  color,  and  combinations  of  colors. 


22*7.  Rev.  John  Wesley.     Wedgwood  jasper  medallion. 
White  on  blue. 


330  POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 

He  appreciated  able  artists,  and  was  himself  fully  capable  of  criticising 
their  work,  suggesting  ideas,  directing  form  and  design,  lie  was  in  ad- 
vance of  the  English  world  and  taste  in  the  study  and  love  of  the  an- 
tique. No  work  on  ancient  art  which  could  furnish  him  with  informa- 
tion or  patterns  escaped  him.  His  catalogues  are  themselves  wonderful, 
as  they  exhibit  the  extent  of  his  researches  in  ancient  and  modern  art  for 
originals  to  be  reproduced  in  busts,  medallions,  cameos,  intaglios,  and  bas- 
reliefs.  He  borrowed  engraved  gems  wherever  he  could  find  them, 
copied  them  in  jasper  of  various  colors,  produced  many  beautiful  original 
works  from  models  or  drawings  of  artists  and  amateurs  of  his  own  time, 
and  made  the  noblest  efforts  of  artists  in  all  ages 
familiar  to  the  people  of  England  and  Europe. 

His  fabrics  he  exported  to  all  parts  of  the  world  ; 
and  Italy,  which  had,  a  few  centuries  before,  been 
the  art  teacher  of  Europe,  received  from  him  a  re- 
22S.  Wedgwood  Ear-ring  payment  so  great  that  perhaps  more  of  Wedgwood's 
work  is  to  be  found  in  Italy  than  in  any  other  coun- 
trv.  Travelling  in  the  interior,  we  have  been  astonished  at  finding  beau- 
tiful specimens  in  obscure  little  inns.  The  Neapolitan  factories  of  Gius- 
tiniani  and  Del  Vecchio  were  roused  by  the  large  importations  of  these 
wares  to  imitate  and  copy  them,  and  some  very  beautiful  ware,  not  infe- 
rior to  Wedgwood,  was  the  result. 

Other  English  factories  also  sought  to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  the 
great  ceramist.  But  his  strides  were  too  long  for  them,  and,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  those  who  were  educated  in  his  own  workshops,  none  succeeded 
in  closely  imitating  him.     But  his  influence  gave  life  to  art  in  England. 

The  products  of  the  Wedgwrood  factory  include  articles  in  nearly  ev- 
ery form  known  to  ceramic  art.  The  collector  who  chooses  to  confine  his 
studies  solely  to  this  factory  may  gather  as  great  a  variety  of  objects  of 
beauty  as  if  his  collection  represented  all  the  works  of  all  times;  and,  so 
very  rare  have  some  of  the  objects  now  become,  he  may  find  occupation 
for  a  long  life  without  reaching  the  completion  of  his  desired  collection. 

A  glance  at  the  catalogue  of  17*7  will  show  the  extent  to  which,  at 
that  time,  Wedgwood  had  carried  his  illustrations  of  art.  He  divides 
the  objects  offered  for  sale  into  twenty  classes.  Class  I.  includes  cameos 
and  intaglios;  Egyptian,  Grecian,  and  Roman  mythology;  ancient  philos- 
ophers, sovereigns;  fabulous  age  of  Greece;  war  of  Troy;  Roman  history; 
masks,  chimseras ;  illustrious  moderns,  and  miscellaneous  subjects.  The 
numbers  of  the  cameos  run  up  to  1704,  and  of  the  intaglios  to  394.  Class 
II.  includes  bas-reliefs,  medallions,  tablets,  etc.     These  are  of  sizes  varying 


KXdLAKD. 


331 


from  one  inch  by  two  to  twelve  inches  by  twenty-seven,  and  number  275 
varieties.  Classes  III.,  IV.,  and  V.  include  kings,  illustrious  persons,  and 
scenes  in  Grecian,  Egyptian,  and  Roman  history, 
down  to  the  removal  of  the  seat  of  empire  to 
Constantinople.  Class  IX.  includes  kings  of 
England  and  France.  Class  X.  includes  heads 
of  illustrious  moderns.  Class  XL  includes  busts, 
varying  in  height  from  four  to  twenty-five  inch- 
es ;  statues  and  figures  two  feet  high  and  down- 
ward in  size.  Class  XII.  includes  lamps  and 
candelabra.  Class  XIII.  includes  tea  and  coffee 
equipages,  all  in  bamboo-ware,  basaltes-ware,  or  229.  Wedgwood  Cameo:  jasper- 
jasper-ware,  polished  (not  glazed)  within.  Class  ware-  Wmteonblue- 
XIV.  includes  flower  and  root  pots.  Class  XV.  includes  ornamental 
vases  of  antique  forms  in  the  terra  -cotta  resembling  agate,  jasper,  por- 
phyry, and  other  variegated  stones  of  the  crystalline  kind.  Class  XVI. 
includes   antique  vases  of  black   porcelain,  or  artificial  basaltes.      Class 

XVII.  includes  vases,  paterae,  tablets,  etc.,  with  encaustic  paintings.     Class 

XVIII.  includes  vases,  tripods,  and  other  ornaments  in  the  jasper.     Class 

XIX.  includes  inkstands,  mortars,  paint-chests,  eye-cups,  and  chemical  ves- 
sels. Class  XX.  includes  thermometers  for  measuring  strong  fire,  or  the 
degrees  of  heat  above  ignition :  this  instrument,  known  and  used  still  as 
Wedgwood's  pyrometer,  being  an  invention  of  Josiah  Wedgwood,  by 
which  the  temperature  of  a  furnace  can  be  determined  accurately  on  the 

principle  of  the  contraction  of  argillaceous  substances 
in  heat. 

After  the  death  of  Josiah  Wedgwood,  the  factory 
at  Etruria  continued  its  work  in  all  respects  as  during 
his  life,  and  many  improvements  were  made.  In 
1808,  Mr.  Byerley  produced  the  first  .soft-paste  porce- 
lain which  had  been  made  there.  It  was  a  very  pure 
paste,  white,  decorated  admirably,  but  the  production 
was  not  long  continued,  and  specimens  are  rare. 
Examples  in  our  collection  show  decorations  in  Chi- 
nese figures  and  groups  in  medallions,  on  diapered 
green  ground,  rich  blue,  red,  and  gold  foliage,  like 
the  Derby  and  other  brilliant  wares,  and  various  pop- 
ular styles  of  the  day. 

It  is  not  easy  to  distinguish  the  works  of  the  fac- 
tory at  different  periods,  since  the  form  of  the  fac- 


230.      Wedgwood     Vase: 
jasper-ware.     White  on 


blue.     (T.-P.Coll.) 


:::;i' 


POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 


tory  mark — the  simple  word  wedgwood  stamped  in  the  paste — has  con- 
tinued the  same,  with  brief  exceptions,  from  the  time  of  the  elder  Josiah 
to  the  present  day.  In  the  medallion  and  cameo  work,  the  old  is,  in  gen- 
eral, better  than  the  modern,  because  more  carefully  finished,  less  marked  by 
defects,  and  in  colors  less  pronounced  and  glaring.  But  it  is  far  from  true, 
as  many  enthusiastic  admirers  of  Wedgwood  are  fond  of  asserting,  that  it  is 
easy  to  distinguish  all  old  work  from  the  modern.  All  the  work  down  to 
L820,  and  even  later,  may  be  regarded  as  of  great  merit.  The  very  modern 
cameos  have  more  chalky-white  surfaces,  less  sharpness  of  moulding,  less 
of  the  careful  undercutting  of  the  figures  and  faces,  and  generally  strong- 
er ground-color.  Where  a  medallion,  bas-relief,  or  cameo  presents  these 
characteristics,  it  may  be  supposed  to  be  modern. 
There  is  also  a  difference  in  the  feeling  of  the  sur- 
face of  the  jasper- ware,  the  old  being  softer  and 
more  velvet  like,  which  some  persons  can  detect, 
and  on  which  they  rely ;  but  to  the  ordinary  col- 
lector this  test  is  of  no  value.  The  marks,  al- 
though substantially  the  same  now  as  in  the  old 
time,  are  somewhat  of  an  assistance;  but  it  must 
be  borne  in  mind  that  genuine  specimens  are 
often  found  without  mark.  In  all  cases,  except 
on  porcelain,  the  mark  is  impressed  in  the  paste 
without  color.  The  most  common  mark  is  wedg- 
wood, generally  in  small  capitals,  sometimes  in  an 
old-fashioned  italic  or  script  letter.  Articles  bear- 
ing the  latter  mark  are  very  surely  old.  The 
mark  Wedgwood  and  Bentiey,  in  small  letter,  or  in  old 
italics,  or  in  a  circle  with  the  word  Etruria,  is  very 
good  evidence  that  the  piece  bearing  it  dates  of 
the  time  of  that  partnership,  usually  regarded  as 
231.  Wedgwood  Antique  the  best  period  of  the  factory.  The  circular  mark 
Vase:  black  basaltes-ware.  appears  frequently  on  vases,  and  an  ingenious 
fraud  is  sometimes  perpetrated  with  this  mark.  The  foot  of  an  old  and 
genuine  vase  bearing  the  mark  is  connected  with  a  vase  made  by  some 
other  factory.  We  have  before  us  a  very  poor  black  basalt  vase,  with 
gross  defects,  such  as  no  respectable  factory  would  allow  to  go  out,  and 
which  has  probably  been  picked  out  of  the  refuse  ware  of  some  factory, 
to  the  bottom  of  which  is  affixed,  by  an  iron  rod  and  nut,  a  genuine  Wedg- 
wood and  Bentiey  base  or  foot,  with  the  circular  mark. 

Other  marks,  of  which  the   signification   is   unknown,  are   found  on 


ENGLAND.  333 


many  Wedgwood  pieces,  in  addition  to  the  factory  mark ;  sometimes  un- 
der or  over  it,  and  sometimes  distant  from  it.  Capital  letters,  as  O,  T,  D, 
DN,  AOY,  etc.,  in  great  variety  are  found.  In  cases  where  three  or 
more  capital  letters  are  found  thus  on  the  piece,  it  is  modern  work  (later 
than  1840).  Besides  these  marks,  there  are  numerous  tool-marks — scratch- 
es, numbers,  dots,  etc. — none  of  which  are  of  importance,  except  one  style 
of  mark.  This  is  apparently  made  of  subdivisions  of  a  circle  or  of  the 
letter  O.  It  appears  as  a  semicircle,  or  as  one  or  two  brackets  (),  or  as 
two  commas  t ,  or  as  small  sections  of  a  circle.  Miss  Meteyard  is  of  opin- 
ion that  this  mark  in  one  or  the  other  form  indicates  that  the  j)iece  bear- 
ing it  was  made  since  1810  and  prior  to  1830.  In  modern  times  the  let- 
ters in  the  word  Wedgwood  are  sometimes  out  of  line,  and  the  mark  is 
carelessly  impressed,  which  was  not  so  often  the  case  in  the  old  marks. 
The  letter  o  in  Wedgwood  was  generally  an  exact  circle  of  even  thickness 
in  the  old  marks,  thus:  O  O,  while  in  the  modern  it  is,  or  seems,  more 
elongated,  and  has  thicker  sides,  thus :  O  O. 

But  the  best  advice  to  the  collector  which  can  be  given  is  that  he  dis- 
miss anxiety  about  the  age  of  his  specimens,  and  judge  them  by  their  ar- 
tistic beauty.  A  modern  Wedgwood  plaque  or  cameo  is  as  well  worthy  a 
place  in  any  collection  as  an  old  one,  if  it  equal  the  old  in  artistic  work. 
And,  as  we  have  before  remarked,  the  work  made  since  the  death  ©f  the 
elder  Wedgwood  is  often  equal  and  sometimes  superior  to  the  older  work 
of  the  same  pattern. 

The  porcelain  made  in  Byerley's  time  is  marked  sometimes  with  the 
name  impressed,  and  more  rarely  printed  in  blue  or  in  red,  always  in  cap- 
ital letters.  Marks  intended  to  deceive  purchasers  have  been  used  by 
other  manufacturers  to  some  extent.  Wedgwood  tfc  Co.,  Wadgwood, 
Wedgewood,  are  specimens  of  fraudulent  marks  of  this  kind.  The  gen- 
uine mark  has  rarely  been  counterfeited.  A  Frenchman,  J.  Yoyez,  who 
had.  been  in  Wedgwood's  employ,  subsequently  established  a  pottery  and 
issued  copies  of  Wedgwood  ware,  on  which  he  placed  the  genuine  mark. 
These  were  chiefly  small  cameos,  seals,  and  intaglios,  and  were  so  few  in 
number  that  they  rarely  occur.  No  rule  can  be  given  by  which  to  detect 
them,  except  that  in  rejecting  all  specimens  which  are  not  the  best  work 
the  collector  will  probably  not  retain  any  of  the  Yoyez  forgeries.  We 
have  recently  found  modern  pottery,  made  about  1830 -"40,  with  printed 
landscape  decoration  in  pale  blue,  which  seems  to  be  English  ware,  of  a 
genuine  factory,  with  the  mark,  printed  in  blue,  J.  Wedgwood.  It  is  not 
known  who  this  manufacturer  is. 

In  his  ambition  to  reproduce  the  best  works  of  the  ancients,  Mr.  Wedg- 


334 


TOTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 


wood  was  led  to  project  the  reproduction  of  the  Bakberini  or  Portland 

Vase,  which  has  generally  been  regarded   as  his   greatest 

work. 

This  vase  was  discovered  in  the  seventeenth  century  in  a 
tomb  three  miles  from  Rome,  on  the  Frascati  road.  The  tomb 
contained  a  sarcophagus  of  stone,  within  which  was  the  vase, 
containing  ashes.  No  inscription  was  found  on  sarcopha- 
gus or  tomb,  and  various  theories  were  suggested  as  to  the  2S2.  Form  of  the 
person  whose  ashes  it  preserved.  The  first  idea  was  that  the  Portland  Vase, 
ashes  were  the  remains  of  the  Roman  Emperor  Alexander  Severus,  but 
Winckelmann  and  others  opposed  this  view.  Antiquarians  differed  about 
it  for  a  century,  during  which  the  vase  remained  in  the  library  of  the 
Barberini  palace  in  Rome,  and  was  for  a  long  time  supposed  to  be  of 
stone,  and  ranked  as  a  gem  of  the  highest  value.  Bartoli  called  it  a  sar- 
donyx, De  la  Chausse  an  agate,  Montfaucon  a  precious  stone. 

The  subjects  represented  on  the  vase,  in  white  relief  on  the  almost 
black  ground,  have  given  rise  to  more  discussion  than  its  history.  The 
illustration  (232)  shows  the  outline  form  of  the  vase.  On  the  bottom  is  a 
very  striking  head,  occupying  a  considerable  part  of  the  circle.     Around 

the  vase,  below  the  greatest  di- 
ameter, is  a  scene,  or  a  succession 
of  scenes,  one  half  of  which  is 
showm  in  111.  233.  Various  theo- 
ries of  various  antiquarians  down 
to  the  present  century  have  been 
alike  unsatisfactory  in  determin- 
ing the  subject ;  and  it  is  safe  to 
say  that  no  one  knows,  or  has  yet  offered  a  reasonable  guess,  of  the  sub- 
ject represented. 

In  the  middle  of  the  last  century  it  began  to  be  suspected  that  the 
material  was  not  stone,  but  a  paste  of  some  kind,  and  that  it  was  possibly 
glass.  Mr.  Wedgwood's  examination  determined  that  it  was  glass.  The 
bottom  was  a  separate  piece  cemented  on.  The  ashes  had,  perhaps,  been 
thus  introduced,  the  neck  being  too  narrow  to  admit  them.  The  colors 
were  a  deep  dark -blue,  almost  black,  ground,  on  which  the  designs  were 
cut  from  a  layer  of  opaque  white  glass,  in  cameo  style. 

On  the  sale  of  the  Barberini  library,  the  vase  was  purchased  by  Mr. 
Byers,  of  Aberdeenshire,  who  was  then  in  Rome.  He  showed  it  to  Sir 
William  Hamilton,  who  describes  the  enthusiasm  with  which  he  bought 
it.      "I  eagerly  asked,  '  Is  it  yours?     Will  you  sell  it?'     He  answered, 


233.  From  the  Portland  Vase. 


ENGLAND. 


335 


'  Yes,  but  never  under  a  thousand  pounds.'  '  I  will  give  you  a  thousand 
pounds;'  and  so  I  did."  He  afterward  wrote,  "I  have  no  doubt  of  this 
being  a  work  of  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great,  and  was  probably 
brought  out  of  Asia  by  Alexander,  whose  ashes  were  deposited  therein 
after  his  death." 


234.  Dr.  Erasmus  Darwin.     Wedgwood  medallion  :  jasper. 

Stories  have  been  told  in  connection  with  the  first  sale  of  the  vase, 
that  a  Barberini  princess  had  lost  money  at  cards,  and  parted  with  her 
most  valuable  antiquities  to  repair  her  losses ;  that  the  pope,  hearing  of  it, 
forbade  their  exportation,  but  that  the  vase,  being  a  small  object,  was 
easily  smuggled  out  of  Rome. 

When  Sir  William  Hamilton  brought  it  to  England,  in  1784,  the 
Duchess  of  Portland,  an  enthusiastic  collector,  at  once  pressed  him  to  sell 
it  to  her,  and  the  transfer  was  accomplished  secretly.     The  duchess  for 


336  POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 

some  reason  concealed  the  fact  that  it  had  come  into  her  possession  ;  and 
on  her  death,  about  six  months  later,  it  was  found  among  her  effects. 

In  L786  the  museum  of  the  duchess  was  dispersed  by  sale  at  auction, 
and  in  the  sale  catalogue  the  last  lot  but  one  is  thus  described : 

Lot  4155. — The  most  celebrated  antique  vase,  or  sepulchral  urn,  from  the  Bar- 
berini  cabinet  at  Rome.  It  is  the  identical  urn  which  contained  the  ashes  of  the 
Roman  Emperor  Alexander  Severus  and  his  mother,  Mammaea,  which  was  deposited 
in  the  earth  about  the  year  235  after  Christ,  and  was  dug  up  by  order  of  Pope  Bar- 
berini,  named  Urban  VIII.,  between  the  years  1623  and  1644.  The  materials  of 
which  it  is  composed  emulate  an  onyx,  the  ground  a  rich,  transparent,  dark  ame- 
thystine color,  and  the  snowy  figures  which  adorn  it  are  in  bas-relief  of  workman- 
ship above  all  encomium,  and  such  as  cannot  but  excite  in  us  the  highest  idea  of 
the  arts  of  the  ancients.  Its  dimensions  are  9  inches  and  3  quarters  high  and  21 
inches  and  3  quarters  in  circumference.  A  more  particular  account  of  this  famous 
vase  may  be  found  in  Montfaucon's  Antiquities,  vol.  v.,  book  ii.,  chap.  vi.  ;  in  Sigr 
Bartoli  delle  Sepolchri  Antichi ;  in  the  iEdes  Barberini ;  in  Wright's,  Breval's,  and 
Misson's  Travels;  in  Winckelmann  on  the  Arts  of  the  Ancients,  etc.,  etc. 

On  the  last  day  of  the  sale,  June  7th,  1786,  the  vase  was  sold  to  the 
Duke  of  Portland  (son  of  the  late  duchess)  for  one  thousand  and  twenty- 
nine  guineas.  It  does  not  appear  what  foundation  there  is  for  a  current 
statement  that  Mr.  Wedgwood  was  the  principal  bidder  against  the  duke, 
and  was  induced  to  stop  his  advances  on  a  promise  of  the  latter  to  lend 
him  the  vase  for  his  purpose  of  copying.  But  it  is  true  that  within  a  day 
or  two  after  the  sale  Mr.  Wedgwood  received  the  vase  from  the  duke,  and 
gave  him  a  written  receipt  for  it  and  for  a  cameo  medallion  of  Augustus 
<  !sesar,  which  was  in  the  same  sale,  with  a  promise  to  deliver  them  back 
on  demand. 

Before  describing  Mr.  Wedgwood's  work,  it  will  be  of  interest  to  fol- 
low the  history  of  this  remarkable  vase.  Mr.  Wedgwood  retained  it  in 
his  possession  for  a  long  time.  In  1810  it  was  deposited  in  the  British 
Museum  by  the  duke,  who  retained  his  ownership  of  it,  and  the  museum 
placed  it  in  a  glass  case  in  the  "  Ilamiltonian  Room,"  where  it  remained 
on  exhibition.  On  the  7th  of  February,  1845,  while  several  visitors  were 
in  the  room,  a  young  man,  one  of  the  visitors,  took  up  a  piece  of  stone, 
an  ancient  sculpture,  and  hurled  it  into  the  ease  containing  the  Portland 
vase,  breaking  both  case  and  vase  to  fragments.  He  was  arrested,  made 
no  resistance,  declined  to  give  his  name,  was  taken  to  prison,  and,  on  be- 
ing brought  before  a  magistrate,  still  declined  to  give  his  name.  He  was 
an   Irishman,  about  twenty-one  years  of  age,  of  respectable  appearance. 


ENGLAND. 


He  confessed  the  act,  expressed  profound  regret,  stated  that  he  had  been 
indulging  in  intemperance  for  a  week  previous,  was  suffering  under  ner- 
vous excitement,  a  continual  fear  of  everything  he  saw,  and  "it  was  un- 
der this  impression,  strange  as  it  may  appear,  that  I  committed  the  act 
for  which  I  was  deservedly  taken  into  custody."  It  appeared  that  he  had 
lodged  in  Long  Acre,  where  he  went  by  the  name  of  William  Lloyd. 

The  British  statute  under  which  the  prisoner  was  arrested,  and  which 
was  known  as  the  Wilful-damage  Act,  authorized  the  magistrate  to  im- 
pose a  fine  for  compensation  to  the  owner  of  the  injured  property  "not 
exceeding  the  sum  of  five  pounds ;"  and  it  was  doubted  whether,  in  case 
the  value  of  the  property  was  greater  than  that,  the  court  had  jurisdiction 
to  impose  any  fine.  To  relieve  the  case  of  doubt,  the  British  Museum 
proceeded  against  the  prisoner  on  the  charge  of  breaking  the  glass  case, 
which  was  their  property,  and  worth  about  three  pounds,  and  the  charge 
of  breaking  the  vase  was  abandoned.  The  prisoner  was  accordingly  con- 
victed on  that  charge,  and  sentenced  to  pay  a  fine  of  three  pounds,  or, 
in  default,  'to  two  months  in  the  House  of  Correction.  Being  without 
money,  he  went  to  prison.  It  was  afterward  stated  that  he  was  a  student, 
of  good  family,  and  that  he  concealed  his  name  on  their  account  as  well 
as  his  own.  A  letter  was  received  by  the  magistrate  a  few  days  later,  en- 
closing three  pounds  to  pay  the  fine,  and  the  young  man  was  discharged, 
and  not  again  heard  of.  The  vase  was  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  restorer, 
who  gathered  the  fragments,  and  replaced  them  with  great  skill,  so  that 
the  damage  wras  almost  imperceptible.  It  has  always  since  been  guarded 
by  the  British  Museum  with  great  care. 

Immediately  on  receiving  the  vase  from  the  Duke  of  Portland,  Mr. 
Wedgwood  commenced  his  labors,  and  with  his  accustomed  antiquarian 
tastes  sought,  first  of  all,  to  gather  all  possible  information  about  its  his- 
tory and  the  subjects  of  the  relief  work  on  it.  He  prepared  and  privately 
gave  to  a  few  of  his  friends  a  pamphlet,  which  abundantly  shows  his  at- 
tainments. This  pamphlet  he  subsequently  reprinted,  to  accompany  his 
reproductions  of  the  vase.  In  the  copy  in  my  possession  the  preface  is 
interlined  and  extended  with  some  words  in  Mr.  Wedgwood's  autograph. 
This  preface  is  as  follows,  the  italics  being  his  manuscript  additions : 

Mr.  Wedgwood  is  endeavoring;  to  collect  all  the  accounts  of  the  Barberini,  now 
Portland,  vase  that  have  hitherto  been  published.  He  takes  the  liberty  of  submit- 
ting to  his  friends  the  present  state  of  his  collection ;  and  will  be  very  thankful  for 
any  further  information  they  may  be  pleased  to  give  him,  or  any  other  hooks  they 
may  direct  him  to  in  which  this  subject  is  mentioned  ;  that  the  account  which  he 
purposes  to  deliver  with  his  copies  of  the  ruse  may  be  as  complete  as  possible. 

22 


:;:;s 


POTTEET  AND   PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 


In  the  catalogue  of  L787,  Mr.  Wedgwood  expresses  his  obligation  to 
the  Duke  of  Portland  for  "entrusting  this  inestimable  jewel  to  my  care, 

and  continuing  it  so  long, 
more  than  twelve  months,  in 
my  hands."  It  would  seem 
that  at  this  time  it  was  still 
in  his  hands,  and  it  is  matter 
of  fact  that  for  three  years 
he  labored  at  his  copy.  It 
was  found  that  casts  from 
the  vase  would  not  answer, 
as  the  shrinking  of  the  ware 
in  baking  was  very  great, 
and  the  result  would  be  a 
smaller  vase.  His  chief 
artist  and  modeller  Henry 
Webber,  William  Hack  wood. 
William  Wood,  and  others, 
worked  on  the  preparation 
of  moulds.  The  entire  vase 
was,  of  course,  modelled  in 
larger  size,  for  the  purposes 

235.  Dr.  Priestley.     Wedgwood  medallion :  jasper.  of  the  mould.      Defective  or 

unsatisfactory  copies  were  produced  from  time  to  time.  In  the  latter 
part  of  1789  he  sent  the  first  perfect  copy  to  Dr.  Erasmus  Darwin,  which 
is  still  in  possession  of  his  descendants. 

In  1791,  a  copy  was  produced  which 
perfectly  satisfied  Mr.  Wedgwood,  and  this 
was  exhibited  in  London,  and  sent  abroad 
in  charge  of  Josiah  Wedgwood,  junior, 
and  Mr.  Byerley,  and  exhibited  in  Hol- 
land and  Germany.  At  this  time  Wedg- 
wood wrote  to  his  son  that  the  price  was 
not  yet  determined,  but  that  it  would 
not  be  prudent  to  iix  it  at  less  than  fifty 
pounds.  By  17*9  twenty  copies  had  been 
subscribed  for.  though  no  price  was  named. 
The  subscription -list  increased  somewhat 
after  that  date,  but  it  is  not  known  that  more  than  twenty  copies  were 
made  during  Wedgwood's  life.     It  has  been  reported  that  fifty  copies  in 


236.  Wedgwood  Cameo :  jasper.    Whit* 

on  blue. 


ENGLAND. 


339 


all  were  made,  but  no  evidence  of  this  exists ;  nor  are  the  copies  now  ex- 
tant, which  are  known  to  be  of  this  early  issue,  alike.  They  vary  in  height 
from  10  to  11  inches.  Some  have  higher  polish  than  others.  The  white 
of  some  is  pure,  of  others  yellowish.  Several  were  produced  by  the  fac- 
tory after  the  death  of  Mr.  Wedgwood ;  and  some  of  those  of  later  man- 
ufacture, down  to  1810,  are  fully  equal  to  the  earlier.  The  vase  was  again 
borrowed  in  1800,  and  doubtless  new  moulds  were  made.  The  modern 
factory  continues  the  production  of  the  vase  in  three  or  more  colors,  and 
copies  in  various  wares  and  various  colors  and  sizes  by  other  makers  are 
innumerable. 

The  collector  who  seeks  an  original  will  do  well  not  to  pay  a  high 
price  until  he  has  familiarized  himself  with  one  or  more  known  copies. 
The  color  should  be  nearly 


black,  with  a  blue  tint,  the 
white  reliefs  soft  as  velvet, 
delicate  in  color,  cut  careful- 
ly under  the  edges  like  a 
stone  cameo,  and  the  height 
from  ten  inches  upward. 
Some  originals  are  numbered, 


7.  Cameo:  Wedgwood  jasper.     W hite  on  pale  green. 
(T.-P.  Coll.) 


but  not  all,  and  it  is  suggested  that  the  numbered  copies  may  be  those 
from  the  moulds  made  in  1800. 

In  1872,  at  Mr.  Parnell's  sale,  an  original  copy  brought  one  hundred 
and  eighty  pounds.  Another,  which  belonged  to  the  poet  Rogers, 
brought  at  his  sale  one  hundred  and  twenty-seven  pounds,  and  was  sold 
again  in  February,  1875,  for  one  hundred  and  ninety -one  pounds,  the 
highest  price  as  yet  known  for  this  work. 

Lambeth. — It  is  probable  that  stone-wares  were  made  at  Lambeth  as 
early  as  anywhere  in  England.  Dutch  potters  are  said  to  have  .settled 
there  in  or  before  1640,  and  commenced  the  manufacture,  which  grew  ii)> 
until  there  were  about  twenty  potteries  there  which  made  tiles,  glazed  pot- 
teries, and  stone-ware.  At  the  beginning  of  the  present  century,  only  one 
factory  remained  in  operation,  producing  wares  for  apothecaries,  and  sim- 
ilar purposes,  and  some  Delft  Mare. 

In  modern  times  the  stone -ware  product  has  revived,  and  Messrs. 
Doulton  &  Co.  now  make  the  greatest  variety  of  artistic  work  in  stone- 
wares, equalling,  if  not  surpassing,  all  other  makers  in  modern  times. 

Fulham. — Dutch  potters  also  established  works  for  making  stone-ware 
at  Fulham,  in  the  seventeenth  century. 

Mr.  John  Dwight,  a  gentleman  of  education,  secretary,  successively,  1o 


340 


rOTTI.UY  AND    PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 


Bishops  Walton,  Feme,  and  Hall,  of  Chester,  established  a  pottery  at  Ful- 
ham,  at  which  he  made  stone-wares  of  a  peculiar  kind — his  own  inven- 
tion. 

It  is  claimed  for  Mr.  Dwight  that  lie  was  the  English  discoverer  of 
porcelain,  and  that,  in  1640  or  1641,  he  made  successful  experiments  at 
Fulham.  Dr.  Plot,  in  his  "History  of  Oxfordshire,"  published  in  1077, 
recounts  at  some  length  the  works  of  Mr.  Dwight.  lie  says  lie  "hath 
discovered  the  mystery  of  the  stone  or  Cologne  wares,  such  as  D'Alva 
bottles,  jugs,  noggins ;"  lie  'k  hath  discovered  also  the  mystery  of  the  Hes- 
sian wares  and  vessels  for  reteining  the  penetrating  salts  and  spirits  of 
the  chymists;"  and  he  "hath  found  ways  to  make  an  earth  white  and 
transparent  as  porcellane,  and  not  distinguishable  from  it  by  the  eye,  or 
by  experiments  that  have  been  purposely  made  to  try  wherein  they  dis- 
agree. To  this  earth  he  hath  added  the  colours  that  are  usual  in  the  col- 
oured china  ware,  and  divers  others  not  seen  before."  *  * *  "He  hath  also 
caused  to  be  modelled  statues  or  figures  of  the  said  transparent  earth  (a 

thing  not  done  elsewhere,  for  China 
affords  us  only  imperfect  mouldings), 
which  he  hath  diversified  with  great 
variety  of  colours,  making  them  of 
the  colour  of  iron,  copper,  brass,  and 
party  -  coloured,  as  some  Achat- 
stones." 

In  1071,  Mr.  Dwight  secured  a 
patent,  on  his  representation  that 
he  had  discovered  "  the  mistery  of 
transparent  earthenware,  commonly 
known  by  the  name  of  porcelaine  or 
china,  and  Persian  ware,  as  also  the 
mistery  of  the  stone -ware  vulgarly 
called  Cologne  waii'."  In  1684  his  patent  was  renewed,  reciting,  as 
among  his  works,  "white  gorges,  marbled  porcelanne  vessels,  statues  and 
figures,  and  tine  stone  gorges  and  vessels,"  and  also  that  he  had  discovered 
the  mystery  of  ''transparent  porcelanne  and  opacous  redd  and  dark-col- 
oured porcellane  or  china." 

Dr.  Plot's  testimony  would  be  more  valuable  were  it  not  for  a  recol- 
lection of  the  many  misunderstandings  which  have  grown  out  of  the  six- 
teenth and  seventeenth  century  use  of  the  word  porcelanne.  This  testi- 
mony is  shaken,  too,  by  his  description  of  the  coloring  of  this  "transpar- 
ent earth,"  which  he  describes  as  "of  the  color  of  iron,  copper,  brass,  and 


238.  Inkstand:  Fulham  stone-ware. 


EXGLAXD. 


341 


party-colored,  as  some  Achat-stones,"  all  of  which,  especially  the  marbled 
ware,  resembling  agates,  seem  more  like  pottery  than  porcelain.  A  single 
specimen  of  Dwight"s  "porcelain"  would  settle  the  question;  but  while 
his  "statues"  in  pottery,  admirable  works,  exist,  no  translucent  specimen 
is  known ;  and  it  is  not  likely,  even  if  he  produced  experimental  pieces 
of  porcelain,  that  he  continued  its  manufacture. 

Statuettes  and  busts,  of  stone -ware,  wrell  modelled  by  Dwight,  were 
preserved  in  the  Dwight  family  until  recently,  and  are  in  several  collec- 
tions. These  include  a  life-size  bust  of  Charles  II.,  smaller  busts  of  the 
same  king  and  other  persons,  full-length  figures  of  Flora,  Minerva,  Melea- 
ger,  a  sportsman,  a  girl  with  flowers,  live  stone-wTare  statuettes  in  imita- 
tion of  bronze,  of  Saturn,  Jupiter,  Mars,  and  Meleager.  These  are  proba- 
bly what  Dr.  Plot  called  the  transparent  earth  colored  to  resemble  brass. 
A  half-length  figure  of  a  dead  child  lying  on  a  pillow,  holding  a  bouquet, 
with  a  broad  lace  band  across  the  forehead,  is  described  as  very  line — so 
fine,  says  Mr.  Chaffers,  that  "  the  child  seems  almost  to  breathe  again." 
This  is  inscribed  in  the  paste,  Lydia  Dwight,  died  March  3.  1672.  It  is 
in  the  South  Kensington  Museum.  Other  articles  of  Dwight's  stone- 
ware are  bottles,  one  slate-colored,  with  marble  bands,  others  entirely  mar- 
bled ;  a  mug,  with  a  scene  from  Hogarth's  Midnight  Conversation  ;  a  but- 
ter-boat, and  other  objects.  Many  of  the  early  stone-ware  mugs  and  jugs, 
with  medallions  and  initials  of  royal  names,  as  C.  R.,  W.  II.,  A.  E,.,  G.  R., 
are  assigned,  with  some  confidence,  to  Fulham.  Whether  Dwight  did  or 
did  not  make  porcelain,  he  was  undoubtedly  an  accomplished  ceramist  for 
his  time ;  and  it  is  possible  that  fur- 
ther study  of  English  wares  will 
show  that  to  him,  in  advance  of  the 
Elers  brothers,  of  Bradwell,  is  due 
an  influence  leading  to  better  art  in 
English  pottery. 

After  his  death,  the  pottery  con- 
tinued, under  the  management  of  his 
daughter  Margaret,  with  a  partner, 
Warland,  making  chiefly  the  brown 
wares  of  commerce.  It  was  sus- 
pended in  1746,  but  revived  when 
she    married    William    White,    and 

continued  in  the  White  family  un-        2;3!)  Br0W11  Stone.ware  Jug.    (Fulham.) 
til  1862. 

Brown-ware  pitchers  or  jugs,  with  hunting-scenes  in  relief,  and  with 


342 


POTTERY   AND  PORCELAIN   OF  ENGLAND. 


grotesque  figures,  monkeys,  dwarfs,  and  various  decorations,  mugs,  bot- 
tles, inkstands  in  the  shape  of  heads  (111.  238),  and  divers  objects,  were 
originated  at  Fulham,  and  very  popular  in  the  last  and  this  century. 
They  have  been  imitated  in  numerous  potteries;  and  the  style,  especially 
a  favorite  handle,  formed  of  a  hound,  has  been  reproduced  for  a  long  time 
at  the  Jersey  City  Pottery,  and  elsewhere  in  America. 

A  flip-can  is  preserved,  which  is  an  interesting  relic  of  "Robinson 
( Irusoe,"  bearing  this  inscription  : 

Alexander  Selkirke,  tliis  is  my  one  (own). 

"When  you  take  me  on  bord  of  ship 

I 'ray  till  me  full  of  punch  or  flip.     Fulham. 


The  brown  ware  was  made  also  at  Nottingham,  where  a  potter,  Morlev, 
worked  in  17f>7.     ''Nottingham  ware"  was  a  familiar  name  for  the  mugs 

and  other  ordinary  articles.  Dated 
specimens  are  found  from  17:21 
to  1771.  The  ware  is  xery  hard, 
salt -glazed,  and  generally  lias  a 
slight  metallic  lustre.  It  is  deco- 
rated with  incised  lines  of  bands 
and  flowers,  especially  pinks. 
Large  punch-bowls,  tobacco-jars, 
puzzle-jugs,  bottles  in  the  shape 
of  bears,  mugs,  etc.,  are  among 
specimens.  Brown  jugs  like  those 
of  Fulham,  the  upper  parts  darker 
than  the  lower,  dead  glaze  without 
lustre,  are  later.  Names  of  own- 
ers are  incised.  These  works  were 
discontinued  before  1800. 

John   and  Christopher  Heath 
made  brown  stone-ware  similar  to 


240.  Puzzle-jug.     (Nottingham.) 


that  of  Fulham  and  Nottingham  at  Cock-pit  Hill,  in  Derbyshire,  prior  to 
1750.  A  mug.  a  copy  of  the  Fulham  mug,  with  Hogarth's  Midnight  Con- 
versation, is  inscribed  WilUam  Heath,1764:.  Jugs  with  reliefs,  superior 
in  modelling  and  work,  with  subjects  not  found  on  Lambeth  or  Fulham 
ware,  have  been  attributed  to  the  Heaths. 

Burslem. — The  name  lin.  Wood  is  found  stamped  on  a  statuette  of 
( Jhaucer,  and  on  another  specimen,  both  in  pottery.  He  was  probably  the 
father  of  Aaron  "Wood,  and  seems  to  have  made  wares  in  colored  potteries 


ENGLAND. 


343 


before  1750,  when  Aaron  commenced  work  on  his  own  account,  having 
been  previously  appren- 
ticed to  Dr.  Thomas 
Wedgwood,  one  of  the 
numerous  family  of 
Wedgwoods  who  were 
potters.  Aaron  Wood 
made  white  stone -ware 
with  the  salt  glaze.  lie 
was  known  as  an  ingen- 
ious engraver  of  moulds 
for  these  wares.  It  has 
been  supposed  that  he 
was  the  inventor  of  the 
white  ware  known  after- 
ward as  cream  -  ware,  and 
after  Wedgwood's  im- 
provements, as  queen's- 
ware.  Enoch  Wood,  who 
was      called      afterward 


241.  Old  Staffordshire  White  Pottei 
yellow. 


Figures  in  blue,  with 


"The  Father  of  the  Pottery,"  began  business  in  1784,  and  produced  all 

the  ordinary  modern  varieties  of  pottery.     His  specially  important  work 

was  in  statuettes,  made  of  soft  pottery,  colored  in 
good  style.  We  have  in  our  collection  several 
of  these,  the  best  of  which  are  —  Shakspeare,  18 
inches  high;  Milton,  the  same  size;  Benjamin 
Franklin,  15  inches  high,  wearing  a  dove-colored 
coat,  yellow-embroidered  vest,  red  knee-breeches, 
and  white  stockings.  The  decorator,  probably  in 
the  haste  of  an  order  for  several  statuettes,  hav- 
ing a  variety  before  him,  has  named  this  last  one, 
in  gold,  General  Washington.  We  have  seen  an- 
other example  of  the  same  statuette,  in  which 
Franklin  is  dressed  in  a  rich  blue  coat,  with 
white  vest  and  breeches,  and  a  third,  in  which  his 
costume  is  still  different  in  color. 

In   1790,  James  Caldwell   entered   the  firm, 
now  Wood  &  Caldwell,  but  retired  in   1818, 

when  Wood  took  three  sons  into  partnership  under  the  firm  name,  E. 

Wood  &  Sons,  which  continued  till  1846,  when  they  closed  the  business, 


242.  Shakspeare:   Enoch 
Wood's  ware. 


:;44- 


1'OTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 


Enoch  Wood  having  died  in  ls4<>,  aged  eighty-three.  Large  quantities 
of  ordinary  pottery,  decorated  in  blue,  and  other  colored  prints,  by  E. 
Wood  &  Sons,  were  brought  to  America,  and  among  these  are  many 
good  specimens  well  worth  preserving.  Some  were  decorated  with  prints 
of  American  subjects. 

The  illustration  (243)  which  we  give  from  a  blue  printed  plate  by  E. 
Wood  &  Sons,  serves  a  purpose  to  show  the  interest  which  may  attach 
even  to  common  wares.     This  appears  to  be  one  of  a  service  made  for  a 


243.  Hudson  River  Steamer  "Chief-Justice  Marshall."     (From  a  blue  printed  plate  by 
E.  Wood  &  Sons.     T.-P.  Coll.) 

Hudson  River  steamboat.  The  same  print  appears  on  another  plate  in  our 
collection  with  the  name  of  the  steamer  changed.  In  this  case  it  is  the 
Chief-Justice  Marshall,  a  steamer  that  will  be  remembered  by  many  old 
persons  as  among  the  first  to  navigate  the  waters  of  the  Hudson.  They 
will  remember,  too,  the  custom  of  discharging  and  receiving  passengers  by 
a  small  boat,  run  out  with  a  line  from  the  steamer  to  the  shore,  and  drawn 
back  by  the  same  line  winding  around  the  boat's  shaft  as  she  steamed  on  ; 
a  custom  which  led  to  accidents,  and  the  enactment  of  a  statute  forbid- 
ding the  attachment  of  the  line  to  any  part  of  the  machinery. 

Other  printed  wares  in  our  collection  form  a  series  of  illustrations  of 
early  steam  navigation. 

,  Daniel  Steele,  of  Burslem,  about  1802,  made  wares  resembling  Wedg- 
wood's jasper.  His  name  is  impressed  on  medallion  portraits,  white  on 
blue. 

John  Mitchell  was  a  large  manufacturer  of  white  stone -ware,  salt- 
glazed,  at  Burslem,  in  the  early  part  of  the  last  century. 


ENGLAND.  345 

John  and  Richard  Riley  began  making  ordinary  domestic  wares  here 
in  the  last  century,  and  continued  work  till  1827.  Their  white  ware,  dec- 
orated in  dark -blue  prints,  marked  Riley's  semi-stone  china  in  a  circular 
belt,  or  simply  Riley,  is  abundant  in  America. 

John  Lockett  and  Timothy  Lockett  made  white  stone-ware,  salt-glazed, 
in  various  forms,  in  and  after  1786.  The  name  J.  Lockett  is  impressed  on 
wares.     In  1802,  they  removed  to  Lane  End. 

John  Walton  (1806)  made  statuettes,  groups,  whistles,  and  toys.  His 
statuettes  are  quaint  and  curious.  We  have  by  him  Elijah  and  the  Wid- 
ow, a  shepherd  and  shepherdess,  Falstaff,  and  birds,  and  animals.  The 
name  Walton,  in  a  scroll,  is  on  the  back  of  the  pedestals  of  Elijah  and 
the  Widow. 

Tunstall. — About  1750,  Enoch  Booth  made  pottery  here.  His  name 
is  on  a  dish  dated  1757.  lie  is  said  to  have  introduced  the  use  of  fluid 
glaze.  Anthony  Keeling,  his  son-in-law,  succeeded  him,  and  in  1780  made 
queen's  and  other  ware.  The  firm  was  later  A.  &  E.  Keeling.  Mr. 
Chaffers  is  of  opinion  that  the  New  Hall  porcelain  company  purchased 
Champion's  (Bristol)  patent  in  1777,  and  began  to  make  porcelain  in  con- 
nection with  Keeling  that  year  at  Tun  stall.  Mr.  Owen,  the  historian  of 
Bristol  porcelain,  says  Champion  did  not  sell  till  1782. 

About  1780,  AVilliam  Adams,  who  had  been  educated  by  Wedgwood, 
began  work  on  his  own  account  at  Tunstall,  and  executed  copies  of  Wedg- 
wood jasper-wares,  and  wTork  in  similar  style,  which  are  often  equal  to  the 
originals. 

In  178G,  the  firm  William  Adams  &  Co.  produced  cream -wares  and 
colored  potteries,  which  are  signed  with  their  names. 

G.  F.  Bowers  made  ordinary  wares,  signed  G.  F.  B.  in  a  knot. 

Smith  Child  made  queen's  and  other  wares  about  17G3,  the  mark 
Child  impressed. 

Longport. — Messrs.  John  &  George  Rogers  made  potteries  for  domes- 
tic use  in  the  latter  part  of  the  last  century  and  early  part  of  this.  We 
find  the  name  Rogers  impressed  on  cream-wares  and  printed  potteries, 
sometimes  accompanied  with  the  chemical  sign  for  iron  on  stone-wares. 
This  sign  is  a  common  mark  on  potteries,  and  unless  accompanied  by  a 
name  does  not  identify  pieces  as  of  any  special  manufactory. 

The  most  important  factory  at  Longport  was  one  which  Mr.  John 
Davenport  took  in  1793.  He  extended  the  works  largely,  and  produced 
a  great  quantity  of  ordinary  and  fine  work  in  pottery  and  porcelain.  The 
proprietor  employed  able  artists,  especially  for  flower-painting,  in  which 
the  decorations  of  the  porcelain  especially  excel.     The  works  still  con- 


346  POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN   OF  ENGLAND. 

tinue.  No  English  factory  had  produced  more  beautiful  porcelain  than 
this.  Specimens  are  abundant  in  America,  of  very  line  services,  decorated 
with  rich  blue  or  yellow  borders,  and  flowers  on  white. 

Cobridge. — Ralph  Daniel,  of  Cobridge,  brought  to  Staffordshire  the 
French  practice  of  using  plaster-of-Paris  moulds.  lie  was  a  potter;  but 
we  know  nothing  of  his  work.  John  Warburton,  and  his  widow  after  his 
death,  had  a  pottery  here,  where  they  made  cream-wares.  Mrs.  Warbur- 
ton was  specially  known  for  good  enamelling,  and  previous  to  1709  Josiah 
Wedgwood  sent  to  Mrs.  Warburton  nndecorated  goods  to  be  painted  and 
enamelled  by  her. 

J.  and  R.  Clews  were  potters  at  Cobridge  from  about  1S1-1  till  1836. 
They  are  wTell  known  to  Americans  from  the  quantity  of  their  wares  dec- 
orated with  printed  American  scenes  and  portraits,  which  they  made  for 
this  market.  Their  dark -blue  decorations  seem  to  have  been  favorites 
here.  They  made  cream-ware  decorated  in  relief  patterns  and  colors,  and 
also  porcelain.  Among  their  American  decorations  one  of  the  most 
elaborate  was  the  "Landing  of  Lafayette  at  Castle  Garden,"  which  they 
placed,  in  prints  of  various  sizes,  on  dinner  and  tea  services.  Besides  these, 
we  have  specimens  of  several  services  on  which  are  American  prints : 
among  them  a  view  of  the  old  Stevens  House  at  Hoboken ;  the  White 
House  at  Washington,  with  names  of  thirteen  States  on  the  border;  En- 
trance of  the  Erie  Canal  into  the  Hudson  at  Albany ;  the  upper  Ferry 
Bridge  over  the  Schuylkill ;  Passaic  Falls,  and  many  others.  Among 
their  best  printed  work  are  the  Wilkie  Designs,  as  they  were  called,  which 
are  good  character  pictures  in  a  very  rich  blue.  This  style  of  pottery,  of 
the  period  from  1810  to  1830,  decorated  in  dark  blue,  made  by  various 
English  factories,  was  common  enough  in  America  forty  years  ago,  but  is 
now  becoming  scarce.  It  is  not  prized,  except  by  a  few  judicious  collec- 
tors, who  recognize  in  it  a  color  that  is  rarely  surpassed  on  pottery;  and, 
common  as  the  ware  may  have  been  thought,  it  has  ceased  to  be  common 
—is,  indeed,  becoming  rare — and  collectors  will  do  well  to  secure  good 
specimens. 

J.  Voyez,  a  Frenchman  in  the  employ  of  Wedgwood,  superintending 
the  manufacture  of  jasper-wares,  was  discharged  for  some  cause.  He  was 
a  man  of  ability,  Josiah  Wedgwood  describing  him  as  "a  perfect  master 
of  the  antique  style  in  ornaments,  vases,"  etc.  Between  1770  and  177;!. 
Voyez  established  himself  in  a  pottery  at  Cobridge,  where  he  produced 
jasper- wares  in  AVedgwood's  style,  intaglios  and  cameos,  vases,  tablets, 
statuettes,  and  other  articles,  some  of  which  were  remarkably  fine.  On 
some  he  placed  the  Wedgwood  mark.     While  they  are  tolerably  close  im- 


ENGLAND. 


?A\ 


itations  of  Wedgwood's  work,  they  are  in  general  inferior.  The  objects 
with  the  counterfeit  mark  are  always  small  cameos,  intaglios,  and  other 
small  pieces,  and  it  is  not  probable  that  they  were  numerous.  Few  of  the 
works  of  Voyez  bear  any  mark.  A  jug  in  the  South  Kensington  Museum 
has  the  name  Voyez,  and  J.  Voyez  is  stamped  on  another.  The  name 
also  occurs  on  a  vase  made  by  Palmer  at  Ilanley,  who  employed  him  in 
1709. 

Hanley. — The  names  of  E.  Mayer  and  of  E.  Mayer  &  Son  occur  fre- 
quently on  ordinary  potteries  found  in  America.  Elijah  Mayer  estab- 
lished a  pottery  about  1770,  and  the  firm  ceased  work  in  1830.  They 
made  cream-ware,  black  basaltes  like  Wedgwood's,  brown-line  ware,  un- 
glazed  terra-cotta  with  colored  reliefs,  and  the  common  varieties  of  table 
crockery.  Their  black  wares  were  sometimes  moulded  with  high-reliefs. 
We  have  specimens  commemorating  Wellington  and  his  battles.  A  well- 
known  service  was  made 
in  honor  of  aSTelson  and 
his  battles,  on  which  are 
pyramids,  crocodiles,  Bri- 
tannia, Fame,  and  a  mon- 
ument with  tablet.  May- 
er's black  ware  is  some- 
times met  with  in  this 
country.  The  name  of 
Joseph  Mayer  &  Co.  also 
occurs  on  some  pieces  in 
the  Liverpool  Museum. 

White  stone -ware, 
salt-glazed,  was  made  at 
Ilanley  by  Christopher 
C. Whitehead;  and  about 
1780,  Job  Meigh  took  the 
works,  and  the  firm  of 
Meigh  &  Walthall  suc- 
ceeded him.  They  produced  work  from  designs  by  Garinelli,  a  sculptor, 
whose  name  appears  on  a  specimen.  The  mark  of  their  work  was  the 
name  Meigh.  Job  Meigh,  junior,  received  in  1$*2»  the  medal  of  the 
Society  of  Arts  for  a  glaze  free  from  the  poisonous  qualities  of  lead 
glaze  when  used  for  holding  fruits  and  acid  articles. 

Lakin  &  Poole  (established.  1770)  made  black  wares  like  Wedgwood's, 
cream-wares,  and  other  pottery,  including  statuettes  and  groups. 


244.  Staffordshire  Saucer :  white  wai 


Aaron  'Wood. 


::is 


POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 


W.  Stevenson,  signing  work  with  his  name;  Edmund  J.  Birch,  sign- 
ing E.  I.  B.,  and  also  Birch  j  Joseph  Glass,  John  Glass,  and  John  Glass  A: 
.Sons  (no  mark);  J.  Shorthose,  Shorthose  &  Heath,  and  Shorthose  &  Co., 
signing  with  their  names;  Ralph  Salt,  signing  with  his  name;  and  Charles 
and  Samuel  Chatterly,  were  potters  at  Hanley,  making  various  wares. 

Henry  Palmer  (established  about  1700),  signing  "  H.  Palmer  Hanley," 
in  a  circle,  made  cream-ware,  red  engined  ware,  and  black  basaltes.  He 
was  the  son  of  John  Palmer,  who  first  utilized  the  accidental  discovery 
of  salt  glaze.  He  copied  Wedgwood's  patterns,  and  it  was  said  his  wife 
obtained,  in  London,  Wedgwood  &  Bentley's  new  pieces,  as  soon  as  they 
appeared,  for  her  husband  to  reproduce.  Palmer  went  into  partnership 
with  Neale,  the  firm  being  Neale  &  Palmer,  and  they  annoyed  Wedgwood 
by  their  copies  of  his  works — among  others,  his  patented  ware.  He  sued 
out  an  injunction,  which  resulted  in  a  compromise,  Palmer  paying  Wedg- 
wood for  an  interest  in 
jjj\  the  patent.  His  work 
f  was  of  the  best  class. 
Palmer  failed  in  177*!. 
and  Neale  (signing  "  I. 
Xeale  Hanley,1'  in  a  cir- 
cle) continued  the  work. 
His  products  were  also 
admirable.  The  firms  of 
Neale  &  Wilson  and  Neale  &  Co.  succeeded  (1778-87),  and  both  names 
appear  on  excellent  wares  in  Wedgwood's  and  other  styles.  When  JNTeale 
died,  Robert  Wilson  continued  the  works.  He  signed  with  his  name, 
WUson,  and  also  with  a  C  under  a  crown.  The  factory  had  increased  in 
importance  under  Neale  &  Wilson,  and  its  products  were  extensive  in 
ornamental  and  useful  wares.  Ovals  of  Franklin  and  Washington  are 
known  marked  Neale  &  Co.  Common  wares  marked  Wilson  are  abun- 
dant in  America.  The  factory  went  through  several  hands,  until  1830, 
when  it  became  one  of  the  many  run  by  W.  Ridgway,  Son,  &  Co., 
whose  products  were  at  that  time  more  largely  exported  to  America  than 
those  of  any  other  English  potters,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  quantity 
now  found  here. 

The  mark  Eastwood,  found  on  black  and  cream  wares,  is  attributed  by 
Mr.  Chaffers  to  William  Baddeley,  at  Eastwood,  Hanley  (1802-'22). 

Richard  Hollins  (1750-'80),  T.  &  J.  Hollins,  and  T.  J.  &  R.  Hollins 
(1Y80  1820),  Keeling,  Toft,  &  Co.  (1800-24),  made  the  ordinary  wares  of 
the  periods. 


245.  Queen's-ware  Bread-disb. 


ENGLAND.  349 

Edward  Keeling  was  a  potter  in  178(1,  succeeded,  in  1802,  by  James 
Keeling,  who  about  1828  made  wares  with  printed  views  of  Oriental 
scenery,  from  the  illustrations  of  Buckingham's  travels  in  Mesopotamia. 
These  are  frequently  met  with  in  this  country. 

Siielton, — Joseph  Twyford,  already  mentioned  as  obtaining  the  Elers 
brothers'  secrets,  was  a  potter  at  Shelton.  The  mark  I.  T.  is  attributed 
to  him.  Astbury,  the  other  person  named  in  the  same  connection,  made 
white  salt-glazed  wares  here,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Thomas  Ast- 
bury. Samuel  llollins  (1774)  made  red  ware  with  relief  ornaments,  black 
wares,  and  other  varieties. 

The  New  Hall  pottery  at  Shelton  was  taken  in  1782  by  a  large  com- 
pany organized  to  make  porcelain  under  Champion's  patent,  which  they 
had  bought.  No  examples  of  hard -paste  porcelain  according  with  the 
patent  are  known,  but  soft -paste  porcelain  was  produced  from  an  early 
time.  In  1814,  Peter  Warburton,  one  of  the  firm,  took  out  a  patent  for 
"  decorating  china,  porcelain,  earthenware,  and  glass  with  native  pure  or 
adulterated  gold,  silver,  platina,  or  other  metals  fluxed  or  lowered  with 
lead,  or  any  other  substance,  which  invention  or  new  method  leaves  the 
metals,  after  being  burned,  in  their  metallic  state." 

Pink  lustre  was  a  frequent  decoration  on  the  New  Hall  porcelain,  as 
well  as  prints  in  red  and  black,  diapered  borders,  and  painted  decorations. 
The  paste  is  generally  clear,  and  very  translucent.  The  mark  was  New 
ILill,  within  two  circles,  down  to  1825,  when  the  fabric  ceased.  Un- 
marked specimens  may  sometimes  be  recognized  by  the  peculiar  form  of 
the  pattern  number  on  the  bottom,  in  large,  sharply  drawn  figures.  New 
Hall  tea  services  are  common  in  America. 

Job  Pidgway  &  Sons  were  potters  at  Shelton  before  1814,  when  the 
sons,  John  and  William  Pidgway,  succeeded  Job.  They  marked  wares 
with  the  firm  name,  and  with  the  letters  J.  W.  P.,  making  both  pottery  and 
porcelain.  Their  more  modern  marks  are  common  on  porcelains  in  Amer- 
ica, and  J.  P.,  for  John  Pidgway,  is  found  frequently  in  an  oval  under  a 
crown,  with  the  name  of  the  pattern  on  a  scroll.  Brown,  Westhead,  Moore, 
&  ( )o.  are  the  modern  proprietors.  Old  blue-and-white  pieces  by  the  Pidg- 
way house  have  American  scenes.  In  some  cases  the  same  pictures  served 
for  different  places.  We  have  the  State  House  at  Boston  on  one  plate, 
and  the  City  Hall,  New  York,  on  another,  both  views  being  of  the  latter. 

P.  &  J.  Baddeley  (established  about  1750),  signing  sometimes  I.  E.  B. 
impressed,  were  succeeded  by  Hicks  &  Meigh,  and  Hicks,  Meigh, &  John- 
son, who  were  succeeded  by  W.  Ridgway,  Morlev,  Wear,  &  Co.  in  1836. 
The  latter  firm  signed  P.  M.  W.  &  Co. 


:;;,(. 


TOTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 


Other  potters  at  Slielton  were 

W.  &  J.  Harding,  mark  Harding  impressed  ; 
Charles  Bagnaix,  established  about  1 T  * '» < » ; 

Edward  I'hillii's  (only  a  decorator); 


T.  Twemlow  (about  1110); 
Thomas  Fletcher  &  Co.,  established  about  178ti 
(who  onlv  printed  wares  made  by  others). 


Stoke-upon-Trent. — About  1790,  Mr.  Thomas  Minton,  an  apprentice 
to  Turner,  of  Caughley,  established  works  at  Stoke,  which  have  since  be- 
come famous  as  Minton's  works.  Joseph  Poulsou,  manager  at  Spode's, 
became  his  partner,  and  died  in  1809.  He  made  pottery,  chiefly  blue-and- 
whitc,  until  1798,  when  a  ware  called  "Semi-transparent  China"  was  in- 
troduced, and  made  till  1811,  then  abandoned,  and  re- 
sumed in  1821.  In  1817,  Mr.  Herbert  Minton,  his  son. 
became  a  partner,  and  on  the  death  of  the  father,  in 
1836,  became  sole  proprietor.  About  1810,  Mr.  Michael 
Daintry  Hollins  entered  the  firm,  and  later  another 
nephew  of  Mr.  Minton,  Mr.  Colin  Minton  Campbell. 

The  history  of  this  factory  is  written  in  the  innu- 
merable beautiful  products  of  the  potter's  art  in  every 
variety,  ancient  and  modern,  which  it  has  scattered  over 
the  civilized  world. 

Josiah  Spode,  the  elder,  was  an  apprentice  of  Whiel- 
don,  at  Fenton,in  1719.  He  took  a  pottery  at  Stoke 
about  1770,  where  he  made  cream 
and  black  wares,  and  jasper  blue  on 
white.  He  died  in  1797,  and  was 
succeeded  by  his  son  Josiah,  who  in 
1800  began  to  make  soft-paste  por- 
celain, which  he  improved  in  the 
paste  by  introducing  bones,  and  pro- 


246.  Agate-ware  Knife 
handle. 


duced  in  beautiful  forms  with  great 


variety  of  decoration.  Some  of  his 
porcelain  services  are  among  the  most  delicious  speci- 
mens of  the  art,  while  a  large  variety,  not  rare,  show 
the  best  class  of  commercial  work.  His  decorations 
of  pottery  were  also  tine,  especially  those  in  which 
( )ricntal  tastes  and  colors  were  introduced,  and  the  de- 
signs improved  for  English  eyes.  In  1805,  he  produced 
a  ware  called  opaque  porcelain,  or  iron-stone  china, 
which  was  strong,  serviceable,  often  decorated  with 
brilliant  colors,  and  highly  popular.  He  made  ornamental  works  in  pot- 
tery and  porcelain,  and  many  of  his  vases  are  highly  prized.     LTnder  his 


217.  Agate-wan 
handle. 


ENGLAND. 


351 


management  the  factory  became  one  of  the  most  important  in  England. 
The  "corner-stones'1  of  the  new  parish  church  of  Stoke  were  made  by 
him,  each  sixteen  inches  by  twelve:  one  of  porcelain  with  an  inscription 
and  a  view  of  the  old  church  and  town,  one  of  brown  porcelain,  one  of 
jasper- ware,  one  of  iron-stone  ware,  and  one  of  blue  pottery.  He  died  in 
L827.  His  partner,  Mr.  William  Copeland,  managed  the  London  business, 
and  in  1833  his  son,  Mr.  William  T.  Copeland,  purchased  the  works,  which 
have  since  become  famous  under  the  general  name  "  Copeland.'' 

The  royal  factories  of  Continental  Europe  no  longer  outrank  the  En- 
glish. Copeland,  Minton,  and  the  Worcester  factory  equal,  if  they  do  not 
surpass,  all  European  makers  in  the  variety,  beauty,  and  artistic  character 
of  their  products.  The  best  artists  are  employed,  the  utmost  attention  is 
paid  to  every  department  of  the  mechanical  work,  and  the  result  attained, 
in  potteries  and  in  porcelain,  renders  English  ceramic  art  in  this  century 
the  highest  art  in  all  the  ages. 

Other  potters  at  Stoke  have  been  : 

Thomas  Mayer  (established  before  1829) ; 
Henry  Daniel  (established  before  1820); 
Hugh  Booth  (died  1789); 
Ephraim,  Hugh,  and  John  Booth  (from  1789); 
W.  Adams  (died  1829),  and  his  Sons ; 


Thomas  Wolfe  (about  1770),  in  whose  factory 

silver  lustre  was  first  produced  ; 
Wolfe  &  Hamilton,  the  same  works  ; 
Zachariah  Boyle  (established  before  1829); 
John  Aldersea  (before  1829). 


Fenton. —  Thomas  Whieldon  was  a  potter  here  (Little  Fenton)  in 
1710.  Josiah  Wedgwood  was  his  part- 
ner till  1750.  They  made  black-glazed, 
agate  or  mixed  -  clay,  tortoise  -  shell, 
melon,  and  some  other  wares.  Whiel- 
don was  an  instructor  of  potters.  Jo- 
siah Spode,  Aaron  Wood,  and  several 
other  potters  were  his  apprentices. 
John  Barker  and  Robert  Garner,  two 
of  his  apprentices,  established  a  pot- 
tery here.  William  Greatbach,  an- 
other apprentice,  was  afterward  cele- 
brated for  teapots  with  the  story  of  the  Prodigal  Son  on  them  in  black 
print,  and  was  so  good  a  potter  that  AVedgwood  engaged  him  for  life  at 
high  wages,  and  employed  him  till  his  death. 

Ralph  Bourne,  William  Baker,  William  Bacchus,  and  Felix  Pratt,  were 
potters  at  Fenton. 

Lank  Delph. — Among  the  several  potteries  here,  the  most  important 
was  established  before  1800  by  Miles  Mason,  whose  name  appears  on  early 


248.  Covered  Cup,  by  Whiel 


352 


POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 


pieces  of  ware.  Charles  James  Mason  perfected  and  patented,  in  1813,  the 
"iron-stone  china"  made  by  using  with  the  clay  the  pulverized  slag  or 
scoria  of  iron  stones.  The  firm  of  Mason  &  Co.,  under  this  and  other 
firm  names,  did  an  extensive  business  in  this  and  other  wares,  including 
soft-paste  porcelain,  and  their  products  are  frequent  in  America.  They 
made  large  and  small  vases  of  iron-stone  ware  with  relief  ornaments,  dec- 
orated in  colors,  among  which  a  remarkably  brilliant  dark  blue  with  iron- 
red  is  conspicuous.  Some  of  these  are  elaborately  ornamented.  A  con- 
spicuous mark  includes  the  words  "Fenton  Stone  Works  C.  J.  M.  &  Co., 
Granite  China  Staffordshire  Potteries." 

Other  potters  here  were  Joseph  Myatt,  Elkin  Knight  &  Co.,  Samuel 
Spode,  William  Edwards,  W.  Matthews,  and  a  Mr.  Phillips.  Thomas 
Heath  was  an  early  potter  here,  working  in  1710. 

Longton,  or  Lane  End. — The  most  important  factory  here  was  estab- 
lished in  1762  by  John  Turner.  lie  made 
cane  -  colored  stone -ware,  in  various  forms, 
sometimes  of  great  beauty.  A  punch-bowl  is 
described  as  made  by  him  which  held  twenty- 
two  gallons.  He  imitated  Wedgwood's  jas- 
per-wares with  some  success.  His  products 
of  this  kind  are  remarkable  for  beauty  and 
finish.  To  him,  among  other  claimants,  is  as- 
signed a  class  of  cream-ware  found  in  Holland, 
much  of  which  was  decorated  with  odd  paintings,  sometimes  accompanied 
by  Dutch  inscriptions.  The  Prodigal  Son,  the  Crucifixion,  portraits  of 
the  family  of  Orange  with  orange-trees,  are  all  very  rudely  painted.  Tur- 
ner died  178(3,  and  was  succeeded  by  his  sons  William  and  John,  who  con- 
tinued the  works  in  all  varieties  of  ware.  They  patented  a  stone-ware  in 
L800,  on  which  is  found  Turner's  Patent. 

John  Aynsley,  established  at  Lane  End  before  1800,  made  melon  and 
cream  wares.  His  white  mugs  with  black  prints  are  occasionally  found, 
his  name  being  sometimes  on  the  border  of  the  print.  We  have  seen 
prints  relating  to  Washington  on  wares  which  seem  to  be  by  him.  These 
are  described,  in  a  list  of  prints  relating  to  Washington,  under  Liver- 
pool. 

William  Bailey  and  W.  Batkin  are  described  as  the  "sole  patentees  of 
lustred  pottery,"  doing  a  good  business  in  L823,  and  having  been  estab- 
lished since  the  beginning  of  the  century.  Their  names  occur  on  lustred 
wa  res. 

Thomas  and  Joseph  Johnson  made  soft-glazed  white  ware  in  the  last 


(jumi  s-ware. 


ENGLAND. 


353 


The 


century,  and  were  succeeded  by  Mayer  and  Newbold,  who,  about  1800,  ex- 
tended the  works,  and  made  excellent  porcelain,  well  decorated.  They 
marked  M  &  j¥,  and  also  Mayr  &  Netvbd. 

J.  Ilarley's  name  is  found  on  pottery  of  Lane  End. 

Chetham  &  Wooley,  about  1795,  invented  a  paste  called  "  pearl-ware," 
which  was  afterward  used  by  many  of  the  best  manufacturers.  Wedg- 
wood had  previously  given  the  name  to  a  ware  of  his  invention. 

There  were  many  other  potters  in  Staffordshire,  whose  marks  will  be 
found  in  the  Table,  or  their  names  in  the  Alphabetical  List  of  English 
Potters  hereafter  given. 

Liverpool  was  the  seat  of  potteries  in  the  early  part  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century.  From  1716  to  1770  there  were  several  makers:  Alder- 
man Thomas  Shaw,  James  Drinkwater,  Richard  Chaffers,  John  Penning- 
ton, Philip  Christian,  Zachariah  Barnes,  John  Sadler,  Guy  Green,  W. 
Reid  &  Co.,  and  Richard  Abbey. 

Thomas  Shaw  was  the  principal  manufacturer  as  early  as  1716. 
earliest  dated  piece  is  attributed  to 
Shaw,  a  plaque  of  Delft  ware  with  a 
rude  landscape  view,  over  which  is 
an  inscription :  "A  west  prospect  of 
great  Crosby,  1716."  This  measures 
two  feet  seven  by  one  foot  eight 
inches.  Over  a  pew  in  the  old 
church  at  Crosby  is  another  plaque, 
twenty -two  inches  by  sixteen,  on 
which  are  painted  in  blue  the  arms 
of  the  Merchant  Taylors'  Company 
of  London  and  the  inscription,  "This 
seat  was  erected  by  John  Harrison 
and  Henry  Harrison  of  Zeverpoole, 
1722."  Blue-and-white  Delft  wares 
were  the  chief  products  of  the  Liverpool  potters  at  this  time.  It  is  prob- 
able that  a  considerable  portion  of  such  wares  now  found  in  this  country, 
especially  in  New  England,  are  of  their  fabric. 

Richard  Chaffers  was  established  as  a  potter  in  1752,  and  made  blue- 
and-white  wares,  but  soon  entered  into  competition  with  the  Staffordshire 
potters  in  other  classes  of  ware.  The  books  tell  of  a  pepper-box  in  pottery 
made  by  him,  with  his  name  on  it,  and  exported  to  America  so  largely  as 
to  give  rise  to  an  expression,  "  hot  as  Dick's  pepper-box,"  which  we  are 
assured  was  a  "household  word"  in  America.     We  have  never  met  with 

23 


250.  Interior  of  Bowl,  by  Shaw 
potteiv. 


Liverpool 


354  POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 

the  expression  in  American  literature  or  folk-lore,  and  the  Chaffers  pep- 
per-box is,  in  fact,  a  sand-box  for  sprinkling  sand  on  writing. 

To  Mr.  Chaffers  England  was  indebted  for  the  discovery  of  the  Cornish 
clavs,  which  have  contributed  vastly  to  the  wealth  of 
England  in  the  pottery  business.  He  was  persuaded 
that  kaolinic  clays  could  be  found  in  Cornwall;  and 
having  obtained  permission  from  land -owners,  about 
1755,  expended  considerable  money  in  borings  in 
search  of  it  with  no  success,  until  in  the  moment  of 
giving  it  up,  when  he  had  paid  off  his  men  and  was 
riding  homeward  in  despair,  a  hail  from  a  mountain- 
251.  Sand-box,  by  Chaf-  side  recalled  him  to  learn  that  one  of  his  exploring- 
,erpoc  parties  had  made  the  desired  discovery.     lie  applied 

these  clays  to  the  production  of  improved  porcelain  wares,  and  in  later 
times  they  took  the  place  of  the  old  frit  bodies  in  English  soft -paste 
porcelains.  Cookworthy  utilized  them  for  hard-paste  porcelain  at  Plym- 
outh, as  did  Champion  at  Bristol,  and  the  entire  pottery  art  in  England 
felt  in  time  the  influence  of  their  discovery. 

Chaffers  made  a  great  deal  of  good  pottery.  Wedgwood  regarded 
him  as  a  successful  rival  in  colors;  and  on  seeing  some,  of  his  work,  said, 
"Mr.  Chaffers  beats  us  all  in  his  colors,  and  with  his  knowledge  he  can 
make  colors  for  two  guineas  which  I  cannot  produce  so  good  for  five."' 
Mr.  Chaffers  died  in  1705,  and  his  works  were  soon  discontinued.  The 
sand-boxes  dated  17<>9  must  have  been  made  by  another  Chaffers,  of  whom 
we  have  no  account. 

John  Sadler,  son  of  a  printer,  and  himself  an  engraver,  was  a  potter. 
It  has  been  claimed  for  him  that  he  invented  printing  on  pottery  and 
porcelain — an  invention  which  revolutionized  the  art  by  increasing  the 
scope  and  cheapening  the  cost  of  popular  decoration.  This  art,  when  it 
became  public,  was  adopted  in  all  the  commercial  potteries  of  Europe,  and 
has  in  our  own  time  been  so  improved  by  printing  in  colors  that  wonder- 
fully beautiful  imitations  of  painting  are  made  cheaply.  Mr.  Mayer  says 
that  Sadler  saw  children  playing  with  broken  pottery,  which  they  orna- 
mented by  sticking  on  it  prints  which  he  had  given  them,  and  thus  took 
the  idea  which  led  to  the  invention,  which,  after  some  time,  he  perfected. 
The  process  was  very  simple.  It  consisted  only  in  printing  the  picture 
from  a  copperplate,  and  laving  the  paper  on  the  surface  of  the  piece  where, 
being  pressed,  it  leaves  the  ink.  Guy  Green,  a  printer  who  had  succeeded 
Sadler's  father,  was  his  only  confidant  and  partner  in  his  experiments  and 
success.      They  proposed  to  take  out  a  patent,  and  the  papers,  with  ac- 


ENGLAND.  355 


companying  affidavits,  arc  extant,  dated  in  1750,  at  which  date  they  had 
been  for  some  time  working  the  new  business.  Sadler  and  Green  make 
oath  August  2d,  L756,  that  on  the  27th  of  July  they  did  alone,  without 
help,  in  six  hours  print  upward  of  one  thousand  two  hundred  tiles  of  dif- 
ferent patterns,  which  were  more  in  number,  and  better  done,  than  one 
hundred  skilful  pot-painters  could  have  painted  in  that  time. 

The  same  art  was  practised  at  Battersea  in  1753,  where  was  a  manufac- 
tory of  enamels  on  copper.  At  this  factory,  Ravenet,  an  engraver  of  note, 
was  employed,  and  Robert  Hancock,  also  an  engraver.  Mr.  R.  W.  Binns, 
in  his  "  Century  of  Potting  at  Worcester,"  cites  examples  of  prints  on  Bat- 
tersea enamel  dated  1753  and  1751.  Horace  Walpole  wrote  to  a  friend  in 
1755,  speaking  of  "  the  new  manufacture  of  Battersea,  which  is  done  from 
copper  plates."  A  French  pamphlet,  by  Rouquet,  an  English  translation 
of  which  appeared  in  1755,  is  cited  by  Mr.  Binns  as  mentioning  the  art 
of  printing  on  enamels  in  England.  Robert  Hancock  went  to  Worcester, 
and  there  became  celebrated  as  an  engraver  of  porcelain  decorations.  The 
art  was  introduced  there,  the  earliest  known  specimens  being  mugs  and 
other  articles,  with  a  portrait  of  the  King  of  Prussia,  dated  1757,  signed 
with  Hancock's  mark.  Berlin  has  claimed  this  invention,  as  has  been 
mentioned,  but  it  is  not  known  that  any  ware  was  printed  at  Berlin,  al- 
though the  idea  was  conceived  there. 

The  evidence  of  priority  thus  far  collected  is  in  favor  of  Sadler  to  this 
extent — that  he  printed  wares  successfully  in  1750,  and  this  is  the  first, 
known  instance  of  printing  on  pottery.  His  application  for  a  patent,  and 
the  preparation  of  the  accompanying  affidavits,  indicate  an  honest  belief 
in  his  claims  as  an  inventor,  and  a  previous  practice  of  the  art,  and  are  in- 
consistent with  any  knowledge  of  the  fact  that  another  had  invented  and 
was  actually  using  the  art  in  Battersea,  It  is  quite  probable  that  Sadler 
was  the  printer  of  the  Battersea  enamels,  and  the  instructor  of  Hancock. 
That  he  printed  on  enamel  is  evidenced  by  a  portrait  of  the  King  of  Prus- 
sia, printed  on  enamelled  copper,  signed  J.  Sadler,  Lw<  rjp1.  Enam1.  de- 
scribed by  Mr.  Mayer. 

He  decided  not  to  take  out  a  patent  ;  but  the  partners,  Sadler  and 
Green,  preserved  their  art  a  secret,  and  did  an  extensive  business  in  print- 
ing wares  for  other  potters.  Wedgwood  sent  his  queenVwares  to  Liver- 
pool to  be  printed  by  Sadler,  and  returned  to  be  baked. 

John  Pennington,  from  L760-'90,  made  punch-bowls  and  other  wares, 
using  a  remarkably  fine  blue  color,  for  the  making  of  which  he  possessed 
the  secret. 

Philip  Christian  made  all  kinds  of  ware,  commencing  some  time  be- 


356  POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN   OF  ENGLAND. 


fore  1705.  Zachariah  Barnes  made  chiefly  tiles,  in  the  latter  half  of  the 
last  century.  \V.  Reid  A:  Co.  made  blue -and -white  wares,  commencing 
before  1  756. 

A l><>ut  L790,  Richard  Abbey  established  a  pottery,  at  which  he  made 
mugs  and  other  wares,  printed  with  arms,  ships,  and  various  mottoes. 
In  17!m;,  Messrs.  Worthington  &  Co.  took  this  pottery,  and  called  it  the 
Uekculajsteum  Pottery,  under  which  name  it  continued  till  1833.  They 
made  blue  printed  wares  and  queen's -ware  decorated  with  prints  and 
with  paintings,  both  of  which  came  in  considerable  quantities  to  Amer- 
ica. Plates  with  English  flowers,  the  names  on  the  back,  are  good 
specimens. 

Large  numbers  of  mugs,  jugs,  bowls,  and  other  articles  of  cream-col- 
ored ware  were  made  at  the  Liverpool  potteries,  with  transfer  prints,  and 
with  inscriptions,  songs,  ditties,  and  mottoes.  It  is  not  easy  to  assign 
many  of  these  with  certainty,  when  unmarked,  as  the  same  class  of  wares 
was  made  in  many  other  potteries.  Where  accompanied  with  copper-lus- 
tre decorations,  they  are  quite  likely  to  be  of  Newcastle,  Sunderland,  or 
some  one  of  the  potteries  in  that  neighborhood.  On  an  old  Liverpool 
bowl  appears  : 

John  Untly  of  Luxillion 

his  tin  was  so  fine 

it  glidered  this  punch  bowl 

and  made  it  to  shine. 

Tray  fill  it  with  punch, 

let  the  tinners  fill  round, 

they  never  will  budge 

till  the  bottom  they  sound.      1731. 

On  a  beer-mug  is  this  puzzle  : 


more 

beer 

score 

clerk 

for 

my 

the 

his 

do 

trust 

pay 

sent 

I 

I 

must 

has 

shall 

if 

you 

maltster 

what 

for 

and 

the 

Many  prints  on  Liverpool  mugs  and  jugs,  or  pitchers,  have  reference 
to  political  and  other  events,  which  make  them  historically  interesting. 
They  were  frequently  decorated  to  order,  and  bear  inscriptions  indicating 
the  sentiments  and  character  of  the  persons  so  ordering  them.  A  corre- 
spondent of  N~otes  and  Queries  thus  describes  one  of  this  kind,  which 
was  made  about  1800,  and  is  assigned  to  Liverpool  (though  he  thinks  it 
Leeds) : 


J:\aLAND. 


357 


"Under  a  trophy  of  arms  are  figures  of  John  Bull  and  Napoleon.  John  Bull  is 
in  the  act  of  striking-  his  opponent  with  his  right  fist  a  severe  blow  on  the  nose ;  the 
nether  end  of  Buonaparte  is  at  the  same  time  in  collision  with  sturdy  John's  left 
boot.  Inscription  :  '  See  here  John  Bull  drubbing  Buonaparte  !'  On  either  side  of 
this  picture  we  have, 

'  What !  to  conquer  all  England  how  dares  he  pretend, 

This  ambitious  but  vain  undertaker, 
When  he  knows  to  his  cost,  that  where  Britons  defend, 
He's  unable  to  conquer  one  Acre  V 

'If  your  beggarly  soldiers  come  among  us,  they'll  soon  have  enough  of  it;   and,  damn  me,  if  any 
ten  of  you  shall  have  my  person  or  property ! — So  be  off !' 

'Damn  ye !  you  black-hearted  treacherous  Corsican  !  if  you  were  not  such  a  little  bit  of  a  fellow 
in  spite  of  your  large  cocked  hat  I'd  crack  your  skull  in  an  instant  with  my  fist.' " 

Another  jug  is  described,  cream  color  with  a  large  print  on  each  side. 
One  picture  has  above  it  "  The  Triumph  of  Liberty ;"  underneath  is  the 
title,  "  The  first  Attack  of  the 
Bastille,  taken  by  Storm  after  a 
Conflict  of  three  hours  by  the 
Citizens  of  Paris,  July  14, 1789." 
The  other  picture  is  entitled 
"  Storming  of  the  second  Draw- 
bridge of  the  Bastille."  On  the 
front  of  the  jug  is  the  follow- 
ing, in  ornamental  letters  :  "  D. 
B.,  humbly  presented  by  J.  H. 
L793." 

Many  of  the  TIerculaneum 
cream-colored  wares  have  prints 
relating  to  America.  These  have 
no  special  value  as  ceramic  speci- 
mens, but  are  curious  and  inter- 
esting. They  are  in  general  of 
ungainly  shapes,  and  the  prints 
are  poor  specimens  of  the  art. 
They  seldom  bear  the  factory 
mark,  but  it  appears  occasionally 
impressed  on  the  bottom,  and 
sometimes  printed  in  large  black 
letters,  Hebctjlaneum  Pottery  between  the  decorating  prints  on  the  front 
of  a  pitcher  • 


i.Vi.   Portrait,  from  Liverpool  pitcher. 


dot 


POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 


An  extensive  series  of  these  prints  refer  to  the  life  and  death  of 
Washington,  and  pitchers  bearing  them  are  commonly  spoken  of  as 
"  Washington  pitchers."  They  are  not  rare,  and  are  found  in  great  vari- 
ety, the  same  Washington  print  often  appearing  on  different  specimens, 
with  different  accompanying  prints,  and  on  pitchers  of  various  sizes.  The 
following  list  of  Washington  prints  occurring  on  Ilercnlaneimi  potteries, 
in  our  own  and  other  collections,  will  show  the  variety  of  these  decora- 
tions : 

1.  Head  of  Washington  in  oval,  from  Stuart's  portrait  (111.  252).  This  is 
found  on  pitchers  usually  of  small  size,  and  frequently  on  an  oval  plaque,  which 
has  the  swell  of  the  side  of  a  pitcher,  as  if  cut  out  from  one.  An  old  tradition  as- 
cribes these  to  an  unknown  American  who  ordered  a  specific  number  in  Liverpool. 

2.  An  oval  print,  including  a  monument  on  which  is  a  medallion  head  of  Wash- 
ington and  inscription.  A  drooping  eagle  in  the  foreground.  Above,  "washing- 
ton  in  glory;"  below,  " America  in  tears"  (111.  253).     On  pitchers  of  three  sizes. 

3.  The  same  design,  more  coarsely  engraved,  and  the  words,  "  Washington  in 
glory,"  "america  in  tears,"  are  engraved  within  the  line  of  the  oval.  On  pitch- 
ers of  two  sizes. 

4.  Several  prints  on  a  large  pitcher:  under  the  handle,  Fame  in  clouds.  On  the 
front,  the  American  eagle  and  shield,  and  inscription:  "Peace,  Commerce,  and  hon- 
est Friendship   with  all  Nations,  Entangling  Alliances  with  none.      Jefferson." 

Under  this,  "Anno  Domini  1804."  On 
the  side,  a  medallion,  surrounded  with 
wreaths,  including  a  monument  under 
a  willow -tree.  On  the  monument, 
"  G.  W.  Sacred  to  the  memory  of  Gr. 
Washington,  who  emancipated  Amer- 
ica from  slavery,  and  founded  a  repub- 
lic upon  such  just  and  equitable  prin- 
ciples that  it"  (remainder  illegible). 
Under  the  monument,  portraits  of 
Samuel  Adams  on  left,  and  John  Han- 
cock on  right,  the  letters  S.  A.  and  .1. 
II.  under  them.  Under  these  a  bee- 
hive and  cornucopia.  Around  the 
medallion,  "The  Memory  of  Washing- 
ton  and   the   Proscribed   Patriots   of 

America.     Liberty,  Virtue,  Peace,  Jus- 
253.  Washington  Pitcher:  Liverpool.    (T.-P.  Coll.)  ,    ,,      . 

tice,   and    Equity    to    All    Mankind. 

Under  this,  "Columbia's  Sons  inspired  by  Freedom's  Flame,  Live  in  the  Annals  of 

immortal  Fame." 


ENGLAND. 


359 


5.  A  large  print,  including  a  small  portrait-head;  Justice  and  Liberty  on  each 
side.  Victory  offers  the 
helm.  A  cherub  above 
holds  a  wreath  enclosing 
"  Washington."  Fifteen 
stars  and  fifteen  names  of 
States  enclose  the  print. 
On  a  large  pitcher  (111. 
254). 

G.  Oval  print,  entitled 
Apotheosis.  Time  lifting 
Washington  from  a  tomb ; 
an  angel,  holding  his  hand, 
points  up  to  rays  of  glory. 
Liberty  and  America  seated 
by  the  tomb,  on  which  is 
"  Sacred  to  the  memory  of 
Washington  ob.  17  Dec. 
A.D.  1799."  A  woman, 
with  other  subjects,  in  the 
distance.  On  pitchers  of 
two  sizes  (111.  255). 

7.  Oval    print :    Wash- 
ington and  Liberty  standing  by  the  map  of  the  United  States.     On  a  large  pitcher. 
This  is  one  of  the  best  prints  in  the  series. 

8.  The  same  subject,  poorly  engraved,  and  smaller.  On  a  smaller  pitcher.  The 
work  on  this  specimen  resembles  the  mugs,  etc.,  made  by  J.  Aynsley,  of  Lane  End, 
and  it  is  probably  by  him. 

9.  Portrait  of  Washington  :  on  his  right  stands  America,  saying,  "Deafness  to 
the  ear  that  will  patiently  hear,  and  dumbness  to  the  tongue  that  will  utter  a 
calumny  against  the  immortal  Washington."  On  his  left,  Liberty,  saying,  "  My 
favorite  Son."  Below,  "  Long  Live  the  President  of  the  United  States."  On  a 
large  pitcher. 

10.  An  oval,  scalloped  at  sides  to  admit  names  of  thirteen  States.  Landscape; 
a  church  at  right,  water  and  ships  at  left.  In  the  foreground,  a  large  monument  : 
on  the  pedestal,  a  medallion  portrait  of  Washington,  and  legend,  "first  in  war, 
first  in  peace,  first  in  fame,  first  in  VICTORY."  Fame  stands  at  right,  a  naval 
officer  and  a  citizen  at  left.  In  front  a  boy  reclines  on  the  American  flag,  under 
which  a  cannon,  sword,  hatchet,  etc.  On  a  large  pitcher.  The  style  of  this  en- 
graving and  the  ware  differ  from  all  the  others.  It  is  more  likely  to  be  the  work 
of  a  Staffordshire  potter. 

11.  Several  prints:  (l)  Washington,  mounted,  on  a  battle-field;  under  it,  "  His 


254.  Washington  Pitcher :  Liverpool.     (T.-P.  Coll.) 


3G0  TOTTERY  AND    PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 

Excellency  General  George  Washing-ton,  Marshal  of  France,  and  Commander-in-chief 

of  all  the  North  American  Continental  forces;"  (2)  Franklin,  the  fur-cap  portrait; 
(:5)  a  print,  with  surrounding  legend,  "By  virtue  and  valor  we  have  freed  our  coun- 
try," etc. ;  (4)  American  eagle  and  shield.  These  prints  surround  a  heavy  cream- 
colored  bowl,  in  the  museum  of  the  Connecticut  Historical  Society,  probably  by 
Aynsley,  of  Lane  End. 

12.  A  design  similar  to  Nos.  7  and  8,  with  reference-numbers  on  the  figures,  and 
outside  the  oval  t lie  names  Washington,  Fame,  Liberty,  Franklin,  etc.  This  occurs 
in  the  bottom  of  a  large  bowl,  the  outside  of  which  has  several  prints,  one  of  Inkle 
and  Yarico.  It  resembles  the  work  of  Aynsley,  but  may  be  of  another  Stafford- 
shire potter. 

A  variety  of  prints,  verses,  mottoes,  and  emblems  accompany  these 
Washington  prints.  On  one  we  have,  "May  America  never  want  artil- 
lery to  defend  her  rights ;"  on  another,  "  Success  to  the  infant  navy  of 
America;'1  on  another,  "A  man  without  example,  a  patriot  without  re- 
proach." On  one  pitcher  the  reverse  is  a  wreath,  with  masonic  emblems, 
enclosing  the  verses : 

"  We  help  the  poor  in  time  of  need, 
The  naked  cloath  the  Hungry  feed ; 
"lis  our  foundation  stone. 
We  build  upon  the  noblest  plan, 
Where  Friendship  rivets  man  to  man, 
And  makes  us  all  as  one." 

On  another  is  a  wretched  engraving,  entitled  "An  Emblem  of  America." 
A  female  figure,  standing,  holds  in  one  hand  the  flag.  Before  her  stand 
two  Indians  whom  she  points  to  a  portrait-gallery  behind  her,  where  hang 
small  ovals  of  heads  labelled  Columbus,  Amebic — (Yesputius?)  Raleigh, 
Washington,  Adams.  On  another,  two  prints,  one  of  timber-cutting,  the 
other  of  ship-building,  are  separated  by  verses  beginning 

"  Our  mountains  are  covered  with  imperial  oak," 
and  ending, 

"For  ne'er  shall  the  sons  of  Columbia  be  slaves. 
While  the  earth  bears  a  plant  or  the  sea  rolls  its  waves." 

On  another  are  the  verses: 

"As  he  tills  your  rich  glebe  the  old  peasant  shall  tell, 

While  his  bosom  with  Liberty  glows, 
How  your  Warren  expired,  how  Montgomery  fell, 
And  how  Washington  humbled  your  foes." 

<  >n  another  is  a  schooner,  and  the  lines  (one  word  illegible), 

"Commerce  *  *  *  and  peace 

All  nations'  joys  increase." 


EXGLAND. 


361 


Herculaneum  pitchers,  mugs,  bowls,  plates,  etc.,  have  many  other  prints 
relating  to  America.  The  reverse  prints  described  on  the  Washington 
pitchers  are  sometimes  combined  on  other  pitchers. 

One  has  the  two  prints  of  timber-cutting  and  ship-building,  with  verses 
on  one  side,  a  large  American 
eagle  and  shield  on  the  other  side, 
and  in  front  a  smaller  eagle,  with 
the  words  Herculaneum  Pot- 
tery, Liverpool.  One  has  a  print 
of  the  death  of  Montgomery  ;  an- 
other has  the  death  of  Warren ; 
another  Liberty  seated,  and  the 
motto  "May  Columbia  flourish." 
Ships  with  the  American  flag  are 
common  on  pitchers  and  plates, 
sometimes  in  black  print,  often 
painted  in  colors  over  the  print. 

A  small  pitcher,  with  two  por- 
traits of  Colonel  Tarlton,  one 
mounted,  the  other  standing,  was 
probably  made  at  the  time  of 
that  officer's  great  popularity  in  Liverpool  after  the  American  war,  when 
he  was  enthusiastically  elected  to  Parliament  without  expense. 

A  mug  has  a  portrait,  and  on  a  ribbon  label  The  Honourable  John 
Hancock  (111.  256). 

American  ship-masters  trading  to  Liverpool,  and  other  Americans,  had 
pitchers  made  to  order  with  prints  of  local  American  interest.  Such  was 
the  origin  of  a  pitcher  with  a  print  entitled  "The  gallant  defence  of 
Stonington  August  9  1814,"  representing  that  famous  event,  when  the  in- 
habitants with  one  gun  successfully  resisted  an  attack  and  bombardment 
by  a  British  force  of  several  vessels,  sinking  one  and  driving  off  the  oth- 
ers. Under  the  print  is,  "Stonington  is  free  whilst  her  heroes  have  one 
gun  left."  On  the  other  side  is  a  ship,  under  which  is,  "  United  States 
frigate  Guerriere  Com.  Macdonough  bound  to  Russia  July  1818."  The 
pitcher  is  one  of  a  small  number  ordered  by  a  citizen  of  Stonington  who 
went  to  Russia  on  public  service  in  the  Guerriere,  and  probably  himself 
made  the  drawing  of  Stonington  and  the  battle,  which  was  copied  by  the 
Liverpool  engraver.  A  pitcher  has  a  ship  on  one  side,  and  on  the  other 
a  ribbon  wreath,  with  names  of  sixteen  States,  enclosing  verses,  com- 
mencing:. 


Washington  Pitcher :  Liverpool.     (T.-P.  Coll) 


362 


POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 


"  Oh  Liberty,  thou  goddess 
Heavenly  bright, 
Profuse  of  bliss 

And  pregnant  with  delight,"  etc. 

Pitchers  with  masonic  emblems,  accompanied  by  American  mottoes 
and  designs,  are  quite  common.     Views  of  American  towns  and  scenery, 

on  pitchers  made  to  order  by  or  for  resi- 
dents, are  common,  and  such  specimens 
are  frequent,  especially  in  seaport  towns, 
where  ship -masters  trading  to  Liverpool 
resided.  Examples  like  that  of  the  Ston- 
ington  pitcher  will  always  be  historically 
interesting.  There  are  many  other  Amer- 
ican subjects  on  Herculaneum  potteries. 

The  earliest  mark  of  this  factory  was 
Herculaneum,  printed  in  blue,  or  im- 
pressed ;  but  down  to  1822  many  works 
escaped  marking.  After  that  several 
marks  were  used,  including  the  name 
Herculaneum,  and  sometimes  the  bird 
which  is  the  crest  of  the  arms  of  Liver- 
pool. The  pieces  with  prints  relating  to  America  are  of  various  periods — ■ 
from  the  foundation  of  the  factory  in  1796  to  1820,  and  possibly  later. 

Jackfield,  in  Shropshire,  was  a  famous  site  for  the  making  of  black 
glazed  wares,  as  early  as  1713  and  down  to  1780.  Many  an  old  Jackfield 
teapot,  made  of  red  pottery,  with  a  rich  black  glaze,  decorated  with  reliefs 
or  with  painted  flowers  outside  of  the  glaze,  still  remains  in  one  or  an- 
other American  family,  where  its  look  of  antiquity  makes  it  prized.  This 
pottery  was  removed  to  Coalport.  John  Thurstield,  at  Bentiial,  made 
similar  ware. 

The  most  important  factory  in  Shropshire  was  at  Oaugiii.ev,  estab- 
lished about  1751.  In  1772,  Thomas  Turner  began  work,  and  built  a  fac- 
tory, at  which  the  Caughley,  or  Salopian,  wares  of  various  kinds  were 
afterward  produced.  His  potteries  and  porcelains  were  unsurpassed  in 
England,  and  for  the  decorations  he  employed  the  best  artists.  In  1780? 
he  introduced  the  willow  pattern,  which  has  probably  been  the  most  pop- 
ular design  ever  produced  for  ceramic  decoration,  and  is  therefore  worth 
studying,  to  ascertain,  if  one  can,  why  such  a  nondescript  pattern,  neither 
Oriental  nor  Occidental,  neither  Italian,  French,  German,  nor  English,  but 
simply  a  queer  combination  of  lines  and  designs,  hit  the  taste  of  the  edu- 


256.  Liverpool  Mug:  John  Hancock. 
(A.  T.  S.  Coll.) 


ENGLAND. 


363 


cated  as  well  as  the  uneducated  classes,  and  lasted  for  sixty  years  with  un- 
exampled popularity.  He  also  introduced  the  "blue- dragon  pattern," 
which  consisted  of  a  large  dragon  in  blue,  sometimes  one,  sometimes  two 
or  three  dragons,  disposed 
on  a  dish,  plate,  or  other 
piece,  and  was  widely  pop- 
ular. He  is  said  to  have 
made  the  first  full  table 
service  of  printed  ware  in 
England.  He  sold  white 
porcelain  (which  was  al- 
ways soft  paste)  to  be  dec- 
orated at  other  factories. 
Messrs.  Chamberlain,  of 
Worcester,  were  large  pur- 
chasers. Birds,  insects, 
fruit,  and  profuse  gilding 
of  borders  characterized  his 
decorations.  The  most  fre- 
quent marks  were  the  let- 
ter S,  for  Salopian,  and  a 
crescent  moon.  The  latter  mark  was  also  used  at  Worcester,  and  it  is  not 
safe  to  depend  on  a  common  idea  that  the  Worcester  crescent  was  only 
outlined,  while  the  Salopian  was  tilled  up.  Other  marks  were  numerous, 
and  are  given  in  their  place  in  the  Table.  Turner  died  in  1799,  and  the 
factory  was  soon  incorporated  with  Coalport. 

At  Coalport,  or  Colebrook-Dale,  Mr.  John  Rose,  who  had  removed 
hither  the  Jackfield  works  about  1780,  carried  on  the  manufacture  of  por- 
celain. In  1799,  he  bought  the  Caughlev  works,  and  made  white  wares 
there,  running  both  factories,  till,  in  1814,  he  removed  the  Caughley  busi- 
ness to  Coalport.  In  1820,  he  purchased  the  Swansea  and  the  Nantgar- 
row  factories,  and  incorporated  them  with  the  Coalport.  Billingsley,  a  cel- 
ebrated painter  of  roses  and  other  flowers,  one  of  the  owners  of  the  Nant- 
garrow  works,  was  employed  and  worked  at  Coalport  till  his  death,  in  L828. 
About  1821,  was  introduced  a  ground  of  maroon  color  which  was  greatly 
admired.  It  was  used  sometimes  in  bands  around  cups  and  saucers,  and 
Billingsley  painted  flowers  on  it. 

Good  counterfeits  of  Dresden,  Chelsea,  Sevres,  and  other  factories  were 
produced,  on  which  the  marks  were  also  counterfeited.  The  ground- 
colors, especially   the  rose   of  Sevres,  were    admirably   produced.      The 


25*7.  Turner's  Caughley  Porcelain :  the  willow  pattern. 


3G4 


POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 


works  of  Billingsley  here,  and  at  other  factories  where  he  was  employed, 
are  much  sought  by  collectors.  Mr.  Haslem,  in  his  history,  "The  Old 
Derby  (  hina  Factory  ;  the  Workmen,  and  their  Productions,"  gives  all  the 
known  particulars  of  William  Billingsley's  life.  He  was  apprenticed  at 
Derby,  in  1774,  for  five  years,  and  worked  there  twenty  years.  In  1796, 
he  went  to  Pinxton  for  a  short  time.  In  1801,  he  was  painting  china  on 
his  own  account  at  Mansfield;  after  that  at  Torksea;  and  about  180S  he 
seems  to  have  gone  into  hiding,  being  in  trouble  of  some  sort.  lie  was 
painting  at  Worcester  probably  from  1808  to  1813.  From  1815  to  1820 
he  and  his  son-in-law,  Walker,  were  carrying  on  the  works  at  Nantgarrow 
and  Swansea,  in  Wales  ;  and  in  1820  they  went  to  Coalport,  where  Bil- 
lingsley  died,  in  1828,  a  man  of  seventy.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  his 
work  occurs  on  the  products  of  several  factories.  We  have  seen  a  Coal- 
port  cup  and  saucer,  with  a  counterfeit  Dresden  mark,  to  which  is  added 
a  B.  The  decorations  are  in  flowers  and  ribbons,  probably  by  Billingsley. 
Small  sprig  patterns,  known  as  the  "  worm  sprig  "  and  the  "  Tournay 
sprig,"  are  frequent  on  Coalport  porcelains.  The  Caughley  willow  and 
dragon  patterns  were  also  used.  Besides  these  no  characteristic  styles 
are  known.  Some  of  the  work  is  beautiful  porcelain,  but  it  is  not  re- 
garded as  specially  important,  and  pieces  are  easily  procured  at  low  prices. 

In  1820,  John  Hose,  the  proprietor  of  the 
Coalport  works,  introduced  a  new  paste  called 
"Improved  Feltspar  Porcelain,"  and  this  name 
is  stamped  on  the  products  with  J.  Pose  &  Co., 
J.  P.  &  Co.,  and  other  variations.  The  factory 
mark  on  tea-services  is  usually  on  only  one 
piece,  most  frequently  the  sugar-bowl.  This  is 
also  a  common  characteristic  of  tea-services  from 
other  factories. 

Worcester. — Mr.  P.  W.  Binns  has  given,  in 
his  "  Century  of  Potting  at  Worcester,"  a  com- 
plete history  of  the  important  factories  here. 

Dr.  John  Wall,  a  physician,  founded  the 
Worcester  porcelain  company  for  soft-paste  por- 
celain in  1751.  Dr.  Wall  was  greatly  interested 
in  the  subject,  was  a  chemist  fond  of  experi- 
ment, and  an  inventor  of  pastes.  He  exerted 
himself,  backed  probably  by  the  influence  of  the 
clergy  of  the  cathedral,  and  secured  the  formation  of  a  company,  among 
whom  were  Pev.  Thomas  Vernon,  Richard  Iloldship,  and  others.     In  1772, 


258.  Worcester  Vase.     Height 
20  inches.     (Huth  Coll.) 


ENGLAND. 


365 


this  company  sold  out,  and  the  property  was  purchased  by  Rev.  Mr.  Vernon 
for  a  new  company,  which  consisted  of  Dr.  John  Wall,  William  Davis,  sen- 
ior, William  Davis,  junior,  Rev.  Thomas  Vernon,  Robert  Hancock,  the  en- 
graver, and  Richard  Cook.  Hancock  remained  in  the  works  till  1774.  In 
1783,  they  were  sold  to  Joseph  and  John  Flight.  In  1793,  Martin  Ban- 
was  taken  in,  and  the  firm  name  was  Flight  db  Burr.  In  1807,  another 
Mr.  Barr  coming  in,  it  was  Barr,  Flight,  dti  Barr. 

In  1783,  on  the  sale  to  the  Flights,  Robert  and  Humphrey  Chamber- 
lain, who  has  been  employed,  left,  and  established  a  rival  factory. 

In  1840,  the  two  were  united  under  the  firm  of  Chamberlain  &  Co. 
In  1852,  Messrs.  Kerr  &  Blnns  became  owners  ;  and  in  1863  a  joint-stock 
company,  The  Worcester  Porcelain  Company,  was  organized,  which  now 
produces  work  of  world-wide  reputation. 

The  early  porcelain  of  Worcester  was,  according  to  Mr.  Binns,  of  what 
is  called  a  "frit"  body.  He  thinks  that  although  Dr.  Wall's  recipe  is  un- 
known, it  was  about  this  :  Sand, 
120  parts;  gypsum,  7;  soda,  7; 
alum,  7  ;  salt,  14  ;  nitre,  40.  This 
was  fritted  together  in  bricks. 
(To  frit  is  to  melt  into  a  mass 
which  is  afterward  broken  and 
pulverized.)  To  75  parts  of  the 
frit  were  added  15  of  whiting  and 

10  of  pipe-clay.  This  composed 
the  body.  The  glaze  contained 
38  parts  of  red-lead,  27  of  sand, 

11  of  powdered  flint,  15  of  pot- 
ash, 9  of  soda.     The  ware  thus  made  has  a  greenish  tinge,  the  ordinary 
steatite  body  being  creamy  and  not  so  dense. 

The  earliest  Worcester  decorations  were  blue,  like  the  Chinese,  some- 
times under  the  glaze,  sometimes  enamelled  on  the  glaze.  Robert  Han- 
cock, who  had  been  at  Battersea,  seems  to  have  introduced  printing  on 
Worcester  porcelain  as  early  as  1757.  The  earliest  dated  specimens  are 
mugs  and  cups  and  saucers,  having  a  portrait  of  the  King  of  Prussia,  with 
the  signature  of  Hancock,  and  the  date  1757  (111.  260).  A  curious  confu- 
sion arose  at  the  time,  and  is  perpetuated,  of  the  work  of  Hancock  with 
that  of  Richard  Holdship  and  Josiah  Holdship,  his  brother. 

Richard  Holdship  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  works  with  Dr. 
Wall.  His  brother  Josiah  was  concerned  with  him  in  the  ownership  of 
property,  but  nowhere  appears  in   connection  with  the   factory  business. 


259.  Teapot:  Worcester  porcelain. 


:;<;.; 


rOTTERT  AND  PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 


Richard  was  business  manager  of  the  works,  and  appears  to  have  become 
familiar  with  the  art  of  transfer  printing,  as  he  subsequently  offered  his 
services  at  Derby  in  that  work.  Some  of  the  early  Worcester  prints  are 
signed  with  a  combination  of  two  marks,  a  monogram  of  R.  II.  and  an  an- 
chor.  The  anchor  lias  apparent  reference  to  the  name,  Hold-ship,  while 
the  letters  are  the  initials  of  the  engraver,  Robert  Hancock.  There  is 
evidence  that  Hancock  had  engraved  prints  for  transfer  to  Battersea  en- 
amels, but  we  have  no  knowledge  that  Hancock  was  acquainted  with  the 

process  of  transferring  the  engravings  to  the 
enamels.  It  is  probable,  therefore,  that  at 
Worcester,  the  two,  Hancock  and  Holdship, 
worked  together  on  this  department  of  the 
decoration,  one  doing  the  engraving,  the  oth- 
er the  transferring,  or  both  working  on  the 
transfer,  and  the  work  was  therefore  signed 
with  the  marks  of  the  two.  How  far  Josiah 
Holdship  was  interested  in  this  printing  we 
have  no  means  of  knowing. 

In  the  Gentleman? s  Magazine  for  Decem- 
ber, 1757,  appeared  a  poem  attributing  to  Jo- 
siah Holdship  the  new  invention  of  printing 
on  porcelain.  This  reappeared  in  the  Worces- 
ter Journal,  January,  1758,  and  (as  Mr.  Binns 
states)  with  some  alterations.  Perhaps  the  author  had  himself  made  the 
changes,  and,  having  learned  that  he  was  mistaken  in  addressing  the  com- 
pliments to  Holdship,  added  an  u  impromptu,"  which  followed  the  poem 
when  it  appeared  in  the  Worcester  Journal,  in  these  words: 


260.  Jug:  early  Worcester  print. 


"  Handcock,  my  friend,  don't  grieve,  tho'  Holdship  lias  the  praise  ; 
'Tis  yours  to  execute,  'tis  his  to  wear  the  hays." 

Hancock's  Worcester  print  of  the  King  of  Prussia  differs  from  Sad- 
ler's at  Liverpool.  The  Worcester  print  represents  the  king  in  armor,  the 
Liverpool  in  court  costume. 

After  1757,  Worcester  prints  were  in  considerable  variety,  and,  as  at 
Liverpool,  they  were  occasionally  painted  over  with  color.  Among  the 
prints  are  George  II.,  George  III.,  Pitt  (Earl  of  Chatham),  ruins,  Chinese 
subjects,  swans,  haymakers,  various  masonic  designs. 

Bat-printing  was  introduced  somewhat  later.  This  consisted  in  using 
oil  instead  of  ink,  and  taking  the  oil  print  on  a  bat  of  prepared  glue,  with 
which  it  was  transferred  to  the  porcelain.     The  oil  lines  thus  laid  on  the 


ENGLAND. 


367 


porcelain  were  dusted  with  powdered  color.  The  engravings  for  bat- 
prints  were  generally  in  stipple  work,  and  the  difference  is  easily  rec- 
ognized. The  designs  of  the  best  artists  were  sometimes  used  for 
these. 

Worcester  white  porcelain  was  bought  and  decorated  by  artists,  who 
made  it  their  business  to  decorate  and  sell  pottery  and  porcelain.  Speci- 
mens of  artistic  work  are  known  by  John  Donaldson  ;  and  one  Giles,  of 
Kentish  Town,  advertised  to  supply  Worcester  porcelain  painted  in  any 
pattern. 

Tokens  were  issued  for  two  shillings,  one  shilling,  and  sixpence,  with 
the  letters  w.  p.  c.  on  one  side  ;  and  on 
the  other,  "  I  promise   to   pay  to   the 
bearer  on  demand  2s.    AV.  Davis,  at  the 
China  factory." 

The  early  porcelain  of  Worcester 
has  a  cold  and  coarse  look  ;  the  glaze 
is  not  white,  but  gray ;  and  the  ware 
has  no  beauty.  Later,  the  wares  were 
whiter,  and  the  glaze  became  very  pure. 
Color  decorations  became  very  fine.  A 
rich  dark  blue  was  used  freely.  Brill- 
iant colors  in  birds,  flowers,  and  other 
paintings  appeared.  "Exotic  birds"  in 
bright  plumage  were  common,  resem- 
bling no  known  birds,  but  looking 
pretty  enough  on  porcelains 
used.  When  the  Flights  took  the  factory,  they  began  with  patterns  that 
were  very  simple,  a  few  flowers  or  sprigs,  and  a  little  gilding.  Fluted 
cups  were  liked.  About  1700,  a  style  which  Mr.  Binns  calls  "Worcester 
style"  was  in  vogue.  Rich  patterns  in  gold,  copied  from  architectural 
ornaments  then  in  favor,  made  elaborate  services  gorgeous  with  gilding. 
The  Japan  style  succeeded  this,  and  was  popular  in  various  English  fac- 
tories. All  England  abounded  in  wretched  imitations  of  Oriental  wares. 
After  this  a  simple  classic  style  of  borders  came  into  vogue  at  AVorcester 
with  plain  bands  of  color.  Yases  had  embossing,  well-modelled  handles 
and  knobs,  and  rows  of  white  beads.  The  colors  were  nearly  all  that  are 
known — shades  of  blue  from  dark  to  light,  maroon,  pink,  salmon,  greens, 
and  ivory.  The  ivory  ground  was  used  for  flies  and  flowers.  Of  the  ar- 
tists, Astles  painted  flowers  ;  Davis,  exotic  birds;  Webster,  landscapes  and 
flowers;  Barker,  shells  ;  Brewer,  landscapes  ;  Billingsley,  flowers;  Baxter, 


261.  Jug.     (Worcester.) 
From  1768  to  1780,  Sevres   styles  were 


:i<;s 


POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 


subjects  on  plaques.     The  styles  of  Worcester  were  more  brilliant  than 
tasteful,  and  the  patterns  in  general  were  stiff  and  devoid  of  grace. 

Many  noted  services,  made  for  royal  orders,  were  superb  in  color  and 
gilding,  but  not  pleasing  to  the  modern  educated  eye.  Oriental  pattern 
work  was  hideous  alike  to  Oriental  and  Occidental  good  taste.  Neverthe- 
less, the  popularity  of  these  wares  must  be  accepted  as  an  important  and 
trustworthy  measure  of  English  taste  in  the  period  of  their  manufacture. 

The  Chamberlains  were  at  the  same  time  producing  similar  work, 
and   executing  royal  orders.      Lord  Nelson   and  Lady  Hamilton  visited 

their  factory  in  1802,  and  gave  an 
order  for  a  full  service.  The  break- 
fast service  only  was  completed  be- 
fore Nelson's  death.  Another  ser- 
vice was  made  for  the  Duke  of  Cum- 
berland in  1806,  and  a  celebrated  ser- 
vice for  the  Prince  Regent  in  1811. 
All  these  and  the  general  products 
of  the  Chamberlains  were  as  brill- 
iant, in  as  poor  taste,  as  those  of  the 
other  factory,  though  their  porcelain 
was  lighter  and  more  translucent 
than  the  other. 

Thomas  Grainger  founded  a  porcelain  factory  in  Worcester  in  1800, 
which  has  continued  under  various  firm  names,  some  of  which  were  used 
as  marks— Grainger  &  Wood  to  1812;  Grainger,  Lee,  cv;  Co.  after  1S12; 
George  Grainger,  Royal  China  Works,  Worcester,  after  1839  ;  G.  Grainger 
&  Co.  at  present. 

Rockingham.  —  Various  kinds  of  pottery  were  made  at  Rockingham 
from  about  1757.  It  was  celebrated  for  brown,  chocolate  -  colored,  and 
mottled  services,  known  as  Rockingham  ware.  The  teapots,  chocolate- 
colored  of  various  shades,  white  inside,  were  very  popular.  They  wire 
sometimes  ornamented  and  gilt  in  Chinese  and  other  designs.  The  "Ca- 
dogan"  was  a  teapot  with  tight  top  which  filled  from  the  bottom,  orna- 
mented with  raised  flowers.  In  1820,  soft-paste  porcelain  Mas  made.  The 
marks  on  pottery  are  impressed,  Rockingham,  Brameld,  Mortlock,  Mort- 
lock's  Cadogan,  and  sometimes  a  griffin,  the  Rockingham  crest. 

Newcastle  and  Sunderland,  near  together,  were  old  seats  of  pot- 
teries. White  wares  were  made  by  a  Mr.  Warburton  before  1750,  and 
numerous  other  potters  were  established  here  and  at  Sotjthwick,  St.  An- 
thony's, and,  later,  at  Stockton.     The  wares  made  in  this  neighborhood 


262.  Worcester  Teapot  and  Stand. 


ENGLAND. 


369 


were  of  similar  class,  potteries  for  common  use,  often  decorated  with  pur- 
ple and  pink  metallic  lustre,  transfer  prints,  and  coarse  paintings.  Verses 
and  mottoes  abound  on  specimens.  Raised  figures  are  common.  At  St. 
Anthony's  white  wares  in  basket  and  other  patterns  were  produced.  The 
Newcastle  mug  is  notable,  in  which  a  frog  was  so  placed  that  one  drink- 
ing saw  him  emerge  as  the  licpior  became  low.  The  principal  names 
which  occur  on  pottery  of  this  district,  impressed  or  printed,  are : 


Phillips  &  Co.,  Sunderland. 

Phillips  &  Co.,  Sunderland  Pottery. 

J.  Phillips  &  Co.,  Ilvlton  Pottery. 

Dawson. 

Scott. 

Dixon,  Austin,  &  Co.,  Sunderland. 

Dixon,  Austin,  &  Co. 

Moohe  &  Co. 


Newcastle  Pottery. 
T.  Sewell  &  Donkin. 

SEWELLS    &    DONKIN. 

Se wells  &  Co. 

Fells,  Newcastle. 

Fell. 

Fell  &  Co.  (over  an  anchor). 

T.  Fell  &  Co. 


Derbyshire. — We  have  already  spoken  of  the  early  wares  of  Heath, 
made  at  Cock-tit  Hill.  In  1770,  at  Wires  worth,  a  potter  named  Gill 
made  wares  like  Nottingham  ware,  and  afterward  soft-paste  porcelain,  dec- 
orated with  poorly  painted  flowers  and  shells.     No  mark  is  known. 

Belper  i&  Denby,  Bournes  Potteries  Derby  shire,  is  a  stamped  mark 
found  on  stone-ware  bottles,  in  the  form  of  well-known  statesmen  of  the 
time  of  William  IV.  The  Denby  pottery  makes  other  wares.  There 
were  various  other  unimportant  potteries  in  Derbyshire. 

The  Derby  porcelain  factory  was  established  in  1751,  by  William 
Duesbury.  The  work  was  not  remarkable  until,  in  1769,  Duesbury  pur- 
chased the  Chelsea  factory.  He  man- 
aged the  two  works  separately  till 
1781,  when  he  closed  the  Chelsea  fac- 
tory, transferring  the  material  to 
Derby.  In  1788,  he  died,  and  Wil- 
liam Duesbury,  his  son,  succeeded 
him,  having  a  partner,  Michael  Kean, 
who,  after  the  death  of  the  younger 
Duesbury,  managed   the   works    for 

his  widow  till  about  1815,  when  they  263.  Chelsea-Derby  Cup  and  Saucer.  (Museum 
were  sold   to  Robert  Bloor.     They  of  Practical  Geology.) 

remained  the  property  of  Bloor,  and  were  managed  by  or  for  him  till  his 
death,  in  1S19,  when  they  passed  to  Locker  &  Co.,  who  worked  them  till 
1859,  when  Stevenson  &  Hancock  took  them ;  and  on  Mr.  Stevenson's 
death,  in  1866,  Mr.  Hancock  became  sole  proprietor.     A  pamphlet,  "The 

24 


TOTTERY  AM)  PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 


264.  Crown-Derby  Cup  and  Saucer. 


Pottery  and  Porcelain  of  Derbyshire,"  by  A.  Wallis  and  William  Bemrose, 
junior,  contains  particulars  of  the  history;  and  a  large  volume  by  John 
Ilasleni,  "The  Old  Derby  China  Factory;  the  Workmen,  and  their  Pro- 
ductions," abounds  in  facts  relating  to  the  works  and  those  employing  and 
employed  in  them. 

The  porcelain  of  Derby  was  a  pure  white  soft  paste,  the  decoration- 
tasteful  and  sometimes  beautiful,  in  great  variety.     The  vases  which  had 

been  made  at  Chelsea  were  largely 
reproduced,  as  well  as  the  figures 
and  groups,  while  new  forms  were 
added.  A  favorite  pattern  for  a 
vase  was  the  Greek  krater  form, 
wide  open  at  top  (111.  265).  A  deep 
blue,  used  as  a  ground,  and  deco- 
rated with  flowers,-  landscapes,  and 
figures  in  open  medallions,  with  rich 
gilding,  often  in  scale  patterns,  was 
a  characteristic  style.  Billingsley, 
the  flower-painter,  worked  at  Derby 
as  an  apprentice  and  decorator  for 
about  twenty  years.  Numerous  other  artists  were  employed  for  flowers, 
landscapes,  birds,  insects,  Oriental  subjects,  and  figures.  Ribbed  or  fluted 
wares,  with  gilt  edges  decorated  with  flowers,  were  made  in  the  second 
period,  after  the  purchase  and  before  the  closing  of  the  Chelsea  factory. 

This  is  known  as  the  Chelsea  -  Derby  period,  down  to  1773;  and  the 
Crown-Derby  period  is  that  immediately  following  it.  The  great  variety 
of  patterns  used  at  Derby  renders  it  wholly  impossible  to  give  any  char- 
acteristics which  would  be  of  practical  use  to  the  collector.  Mr.  Binns,  of 
Worcester,  has  in  his  possession  one  of  the  old  Derby  pattern-books,  and 
Mr.  Haslem  has  in  his  volume  reproduced  many  of  these  in  color,  which 
may  be  studied  with  advantage. 

The  marks  were  various,  in  the  successive  periods.  The  oldest  pe- 
riod is  indicated  by  a  letter  I)  or  Deri//,  and  after  this  follows  the  D 
with  an  anchor  of  the  Chelsea -Derby  period.  Next  to  this,  following 
a  royal  visit  to  the  factory,  in  1773,  the  mark  with  a  crown  was  adopted, 
of  which  the  earliest  examples  are  in  blue,  puce,  or  gold,  and  the  later  in 
red.  In  earlier  times  the  mark  was  made  with  some  care;  but  in  later 
work  it  is  careless,  the  crown  and  letter  being  barely  indicated  by  dashes 
of  the  brush-point. 

The   Derby    porcelain    of   the    highest    class    was    always    expensive. 


ENGLAND. 


371 


265.  Crown-Derby  Vase. 


Dr.  Johnson  visited  the  factory  in  1777,  and  complained  that  it  cost  as 
much  as  silver.  Like  many  other  people,  he  had  no  appreciation  of  the 
truth  that  silver  is  valuable  for  what  it  will 
buy,  and  that  art  adds  a  hundred-fold  to  the 
value  of  silver  itself.  Dr.  Johnson's  com- 
plaint is  well  placed  on  record  as  an  illus- 
tration of  a  common  class  of  thinkers,  who 
measure  the  value  of  beauty  by  mediums 
of  exchange  or  weight  in  exchangeable 
metal.  In  contrast  to  this  is  the  truth  that 
money  has  no  value  except  for  its  purchas- 
ing power.  He  who  can  command  silver 
and  gold,  and  knows  its  true  value,  uses  it 
for  his  own  good  and  happiness  and  the 
good  and  happiness  of  others.  There  is  no 
greater  and  more  common  absurdity  than 
is  exhibited  in  the  criticisms  made  on  col- 
lectors. A  lump  of  gold  kept  in  a  fire- 
proof safe  is  absolutely  worthless.  Large 
investments,  accumulating  income  to  be  reinvested,  are  worth  no  more 
than  waste -paper  unless  reserved  for  future  uses  in  the  way  of  getting 
good  or  doing  good.  The  man  who  has  money  and  knows  its  worth  has 
right,  and  is  sensible,  in  using  it  to  purchase  works  of  art,  works  of  histor- 
ical importance,  pictures,  sculpture,  laces,  pottery  —  whatever  he  please; 
and  that  critic  is  exceedingly  foolish  who  imagines  that  his  idea  of  what 
ought  to  be  done  with  money  is  the  only  correct  idea.  Learned  men  like 
Dr.  Johnson  are  often  very  poor  judges  of  the  value  of  money,  and 
equally  of  the  value  of  art.  For  many  reasons  an  artistic  piece  of  porce- 
lain is  worth  more  to  keep  than  an  unartistic  piece  of  silver  or  gold,  what- 
ever be  the  weight  of  either. 

At  Pinxtox,  in  Derbyshire,  John  Coke,  with  "William  Billingsley,  the 
flower  painter,  established  a  factory  for  soft-paste  porcelain  about  1793. 
Billingsley  managed  the  making  of  the  paste,  which  was  a  good  translu- 
cent body,  and  was  largely  decorated  with  the  Chantilly  sprig  pattern, 
copied  from  the  French — a  small  blue  flower  edged  with  gold.  Billings- 
ley left  about  1800,  and  Coke  carried  on  the  works,  succeeded  by  his  fore- 
man, Cutts.     The  factory  was  closed  in  1812. 

George  Haynes  established  a  pottery  at  Swansea  about  1750,  making 
ordinary  wares.  Towards  1800,  he  introduced  a  paste  called  "opaque 
china."     In  1802,  Lewis  W.  Dihvyn  bought  the  works.     \\r.  W.  Young 


372 


POTTERY  AND    PORCELAIN   <>F  ENGLAND. 


206.  Plate  :  Nantgarrow  porcelain. 


was  afterward  employed  to  decorate  the  opaque  china.  Ee  painted  birds, 
butterflies,  shells,  etc.,  with  skill  and  taste.  His  work  is  valued  by  collec- 
tors. His  paintings  of  hawks  and  eagles 
are  remarkably  truthful.  About  1813, 
Billingsley,  who  had  started  his  works  at 
Nantgarrow,  was  engaged  by  Dilwyn  to 
superintend  his  establishment  also,  and 
from  this  time  till  1817  a  very  line  soft- 
paste  porcelain  was  produced,  decorated 
with  flowers,  insects,  natural -history  and 
other  subjects.  The  porcelain  of  Swansea 
is  regarded  as  the  flnest  English  product 
made  up  to  that  time,  and  good  examples 
are  prized  by  collectors.  After  the  close 
of  the  porcelain  business,  the  making  of 
earthenwares  was  continued.  The  "Etruscan  wares,"  pottery  in  Greek 
forms  and  styles,  are  among  the  best  products  of  Swansea  in  the  last  cen- 
tury. A  fine  white  salt-glazed  stone-ware  of  superior  beauty  was  made 
here,  and  is  occasionally  found  with  the  mark  Ca/nihria/n  Pottery.  Among 
other  marks  are  Cambrian,  Opaque  Porcelain,  Swansea,  Dilwyn  &  Co. 

In  1813,  William  Billingsley,  the  flower-painter,  suddenly  left  Worces- 
ter, where  he  was  employed,  and  with  his  son-in-law,  Walker,  started  a 
porcelain  factory  at  Nantgarrow,  or  Nantgarw,  in  Wales,  where  for  a 
few  years  they  made  porcelain,  which  is  occasionally  marked  with  the 
name  Nantgarw  and  the  initials  G.  W.,  painted  in  red.  The  porcelain, 
when  not  marked,  can  be  recognized  by  its  great  softness  and  granulated 
fracture,  like  loaf-sugar.  Vases  of  beautiful  form,  plaques,  and  services, 
decorated  with  flowers  and  subjects,  birds  and  insects,  on  tinted  grounds, 
are  prized  by  collectors.  A  frequent 
decoration  was  a  centre  sweetbrier  rose, 
with  a  border  covered  with  trefoils  (111. 
266).  Mr.  Kose  bought  the  works  about 
L820,  and  transferred  them,  with  Bil- 
lingsley  and  Walker,  to  his  establish- 
ment at  Coalport. 

Bow. — The  first  soft-paste  porcelain 
factory  in  England   was   established  at 
Stratford -le- Bow,  commonly  known 
by  the  simple  name  Bow,  about  L730;  but  nothing  is  known  of  its  prod- 
ucts till  1714,  when  Edward  Ileylin  and  Thomas  Frye  received  a  patent 


Bow  Teapot  :   reliefs  and  flowers. 
(T.-P.  Coll.) 


ENGLAND. 


373 


for  making  ware  equal  to  imported  china  or  porcelain.  A  punch-bowl  in 
the  British  Museum  has  a  document  attached  to  it,  which  is  signed  T. 
( 'raft,  1790,  and  states : 

This  bowl  was  made  at  the  Bow  china  manufactory  about  the  year  1760,  and 
painted  there  by  Mr.  Thomas  Craft.  My  cipher  is  in  the  bottom ;  it  is  painted  in 
what  we  used  to  call  the  old  Japan  taste,  a  taste  at  the  time  much  esteemed  by  the 
then  Duke  of  Argyle;  there  is  nearly  two  pennyweight  of  gold,  about  fifteen  shil- 
lings ;  I  had  it  in  hand  at  different  times  about  three  months ;  ahout  two  weeks' 
time  was  bestowed  upon  it;  it  could  not  have  been  manufactured,  etc.,  for  less  than 
four  pounds.     There  is  not  its  similitude.     I  took  it  in  a  box  to  Kentish  Town,  and 

had  it  burnt  there  in  Mr.  Gyles' s  kiln ;  cost  me  three  shillings The  above 

manufactory  was  carried  on  many  years  under  the  firm  of  Messrs.  Crowther  it 
Weatherby,  whose  names  were  known  almost  over  the  world.  They  employed 
three  hundred  persons ;  about  ninety  painters  (of  whom  I  was  one),  and  about  two 
hundred  turners,  throwers,  etc.,  were  employed  under  one  roof.  The  model  of  the 
buildings  was  taken  from  that  at  Canton,  in  China. 


Mr.  Weatherby  died  in  1702.  Mr.  Crowther  went  into  bankruptcy  in 
1763,  and  there  was  a  sale  of  the  estab- 
lishment and  stock  in  1701 ;  but  Crowther 
continued  its  management  till  1775  or 
1770,  when  Duesbury,  of  Derby,  bought 
and  closed  it. 

The  Bow  porcelain  products  are  very 
unequal  in  quality,  but  some  of  them  are 
not  only  among  the  first,  but  are  also 
among  the  best,  of  English  products.  Ser- 
vices, vases,  and  candelabra,  shell  and  rock 
work,  salt-cellars,  animals,  and  a  variety  of 
statuettes  and  groups,  were  made.  The 
glaze  used  was  thick  and  somewhat  milky, 
a  characteristic  being  that  the  glaze  fills  up 
the  finer  lines  in  reliefs.  The  decorations 
were  generally  in  delicate  colors,  admira- 
bly combined  for  beautiful  effort,  without 
gaudiness,  in  birds,  insects,  hunting,  and  other  subjects.  The  statuettes 
are  sometimes  very  poor,  sometimes  admirably  modelled  ;  some  have 
square  holes  in  the  back,  indicating  that  they  were  intended  as  supports 
to  candelabra  or  attachments  to  other  articles.  Scroll  patterns  for  the 
pedestals  of  figures  and  groups  are  common  to  Bow  as  to  Chelsea;  but 


268.  Bow  Candlestick:  group, Autumn. 


374 


POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 


iii  the  Bow,  Mr.  Chaffers  says,  the  scrolls  are  more  commonly  painted 
blue  or  crimson,  and  on  dresses  the  Bow  flowers  are  generally  yellow  or 
crimson,  with  gold  leaves. 

Embossed  ware,  decorated  in  blue  with  small  Chinese  subjects,  weep- 
ing-willows, birds,  and  flowers,  was  large- 
ly produced.  When  Sadler  invented 
transfer  printing,  Bow  wares  were  sent 
to  Liverpool  and  printed.  Embossed 
wares  in  pure  white  were  common.  The 
most  characteristic  relief  pattern  of  Bow 
porcelain  is  the  hawthorn  blossom  (111. 
270),  which  is  found  frequently  embossed 
on  pieces,  usually  more  or  less  filled  up 
with  the  glaze.  Yases  were  frequently 
covered  with  flowers  in  relief  work,  and 
insects  and  flowers  were  painted  on  the 
flat  surfaces. 

The  paste  varies  in  hardness.  Cook- 
worthy,  of  Plymouth,  in  a  letter  written 
1745,  says  he  had  seen  a  person  "who 
has  discovered  China  earth.  He  had 
with  him  several  samples  of  the  China 
ware  which,  I  think,  were  equal  to  the 
Asiatic.  It  was  found  on  the  back  of 
Virginia."  This  American  clay  seems 
to  have  been  offered  to  Ileylin,  the  pat- 
entee at  Bow,  who,  in  his  application  for  a  patent  in  1744,  says,  "The 
material  is  an  earth,  the  produce  of  the  Cherokee  nation  in  America, 
called  by  the  natives  TJnakerP  The.  speci- 
mens shown  to  Cookworthy  were  probably 
Heylin's  experimental  pieces,  made  with  this 
American  earth,  and  among  the  early  prod- 
ucts of  Bow  some  specimens  are  hard  paste, 
indicating  the  use  of  kaolinie  clay.  But  the 
American  supply  was  not  kept  up,  and  the  2?0.  Hawthorn  Pattern :  Bow  deeo- 
subsequent  porcelains  were  soft  paste.     They  ration. 

are  usually  heavy  for  their  size,  the  paste  thick  and  compact.  A  small 
pitcher,  on  the  front  of  which  is  a  bee  in  full  relief,  is  one  of  the  es- 
teemed specimens  of  Bow  porcelain. 

Thomas  F rye,  who  was  the  artist  of  the  early  Bow  fabrics,  was  a  por- 


269.   Bow  Cream-jug,  with  the  Bee. 
(Bandinell  Coll.) 


ENGLAND. 


375 


trait-painter,  born  in  Dublin  in  1710.  He  came  to  London  with  Stoppe- 
laer,  the  Irish  artist  who  painted  the  scenes  and  spoke  for  the  puppets  in 
the  plays  of  which  Dibdin  wrote  the  songs  and  music.  Frye  was  a  suc- 
cessful painter,  and  also  engraved  portraits  in  mezzotint,  which  are  re- 
markable for  vigor  and  good  drawing.  His  two  daughters  assisted  him 
in  painting  porcelain,  one  of  them,  Mrs.  Wilcox,  afterward  going  into  the 
employ  of  Wedgwood,  where  she  was  highly  esteemed,  until  her  death  in 
177*;.' 

There  is  considerable  doubt  overhanging  the  classification  and  the 
marks  of  Bow  porcelain.  There  was  no  regular  factory  mark  used,  and 
arrow -marks,  bows,  daggers,  and  other  designs  scratched  or  painted  on 
specimens  are  numerous.  It  is  better  to  rely  on  acquaintance  with  the 
ware  than  on  the  marks.  Many  of  the  statuettes  wrere  reproduced  at 
Chelsea  and  Derby,  and  can  onty  be  identified  by  familiarity  with  the 
ware.  More  than  one  of  the  marks  often  occur  on  specimens.  We  have 
found  a  long  scratched  cross,  a  waving  line,  and  various  undescribed 
marks,  which  it  would  be  of  no  use  to  the  collector  to  reproduce.  The 
impressed  triangle,  formerly  assigned  to  Bow,  is  now  regarded  as  a  mark 
of  Chelsea. 

The  Chelsea  works  were  founded  about  17-15. 
were  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  and  Sir  Everard 
Fawkener,  and  the  manager  Nicholas  Sprimont, 
who,  in  1755,  became  proprietor.  In  1769,  Dues- 
bury,  of  Derb}7,  bought  the  Chelsea  factory,  and 
continued  its  management  in  connection  with 
Derby  till  1781,  when  he  removed  the  materials 
to  Derby.  The  best  period  of  Chelsea  was  from 
1750  to  1765.  The  story  is  told  that  in  those 
times  the  London  dealers  stood  in  crowds  to 
purchase  pieces  at  the  times  for  taking  them 
out  of  the  furnaces. 

The  products  wrere  of  all  classes — vases,  ser- 
vices, statuettes,  and  groups,  many  of  very  great 
beauty  and  excellence;  candelabra,  with  foil-  ^ 
age;  and  groups  of  figures;  animals  under  trees, 
and  other  objects.  The  paintings  were  also  of 
great  variety  —  birds,  flowers,  insects,  and  sub- 
jects. From  1760  to  1763  the  colored  grounds 
of  Sevres  were  repeated  with  success,  the  turquoise,  deep  blue,  crimson, 
apple  -green,  and  the  claret  color,  which  is   the  most  highly  esteemed. 


The  first  proprietors 


'271.  Chelsea  Figurine :  Minerva. 


376 


rOTTEVY  AND   PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 


Among  the  statuettes  may  be  named  Milton  and  Shakspeare,  two  which 

were  repeated  at    several  factories,  Britannia  seated  on  a  lion.  Falstaff 

(often  reproduced),  Minerva,  Neptune,  Di- 
ana, shepherds  and  shepherdesses,  pastoral 
groups,  Cupids..  Oriental  decorations  were 
used  on  the  earlier  wares. 

The  glaze  of  the  Chelsea  ware  is  not 
so  thick  as  that  of  Bow,  is  of  a  soft  milky 
white,  and  sometimes  has  run  down  on 
lower  rims  in  tears.  The  three  support- 
marks  are  found  on  some  Chelsea  dishes, 
as  on  those  of  many  other  factories.  The 
under  rims  have  often  been  ground,  remov- 
ing the  accumulations  of  glaze.  There  is 
some  slight  resemblance  between  the  wares 
and  the  anchor-mark  of  Chelsea  and  those 
of  Venice ;  but  this  will  not  deceive  the 

27 2.  Chelsea  Figurine :  girl  playing  on  pas-  colle(jtor  after  gome  experience.      Counter- 

torella.     (Museum  or  1  radical  Oeology.)  x 

feits  were  made  at  Coalport. 

The  early  marks  of  Chelsea  are  not  fully  understood.  The  impressed 
triangle  has  been  now  assigned  to  Chelsea  because  found  on  one  specimen 
which  has  also  the  name  Chelsea.  We  have  it  on 
a  cream-ware  teapot,  decorated  with  flowers,  and 
having  a  daisy  knob,  and  have  seen  it  on  other 
pottery.  The  anchor  on  an  embossed  oval  is 
an  early  mark.  The  anchor,  painted  in  various 
forms,  was  used  later. 

I  lard-paste  porcelain  was  made,  in  exception- 
al instances  only,  at  several  English  factories,  biit 
none  produced  it  as  a  regular  manufacture  ex- 
cept the  factories  at  Plymouth,  Bristol,  and 
Lowestoft. 

William  Cook  worthy,  of  Plymouth,  discov- 
ered that  in  Cornwall  both  kaolin  and  petunse 
were  to  be  found,  and  thereupon  established  a 
factory  about  1760,  at  which  he  made  true  hard- 
paste  porcelain.  The  product  was  never  very 
large  nor  very  beautiful,  although  a  Sevres  deco- 
rator— Soqui — was  employed.  The  wares  were  mostly  blue-and-white,  im- 
itating the  Chinese.     Relief  work  in  shells,  flowers,  and  embossed  work 


!7:;.  Plymouth  Coffee-pot. 
(Prideaux  Coll.) 


ENGLAND. 


were  employed  on  vases  and  on  services.  Many  figures  and  groups  were 
produced,  mostly  in  white,  and  these  as  well  as  other  specimens  of 
Plymouth  ware  bring  high  prices  in  England,  perhaps  on  account  of  their 
.scarceness — certainly  not  on  account  of  their  beauty. 

Many  of  the  figures  were  reproductions  of  the  work  of  other  factories. 
Blue-and-white  wares  for  table  use  ;  salt-cellars  in  shell  forms  ;  sweetmeat 
and  other  dishes  on  rock-work  or  coral  bases ;  services  painted  with  flow- 
ers, birds,  and  insects  in  gay  colors,  with  much  gilding,  were  made  until 
1773,  when  Champion,  of  Bristol,  bought  the  Cookworthy  patent.  The 
porcelain  was  of  varying  hardness,  according  to  the  proportion  of  Corn- 
wall clay  used  in  the  paste. 

Much  of  the  first  work  was  warped  and  fire-cracked,  the  glaze  often 
impure,  and  the  painting  decidedly  inferior.     These  difficulties  were  par- 


274.  Sauce-boat :  Plymouth  porcelain. 

tially  overcome,  and  the  later  work  was  better.  From  1768  to  1770,  a  dis- 
tinguished enameller — Bone — was  employed,  and  introduced  the  brilliant 
"exotic  birds,1'  as  they  are  called,  which  were  favorites  at  Sevres.  The 
glaze  on  Plymouth  ware  is  often  poor,  and  the  blue,  which  is  the  decora- 
tion color  of  a  majority  of  specimens,  is  cold  and  blackish.  The  only 
known  mark  is  the  chemical  sign  for  tin,  which  Cookworthy  adopted,  pos- 
sibly because  his  materials  came  from  the  tin-producing  district. 

Bristol. — Mr.  Hugh  Owen  has  given  us  a  ponderous  volume  on  "  Two 
Centuries  of  Ceramic  Art  in  Bristol,"  with  abundant  information  and  an- 
ecdote. The  only  portion  of  the  two  centuries  in  which  there  is  special 
interest  is  included  between  1768  and  1782,  during  which  time  Richard 
Champion  made  hard-paste  porcelain.  Champion  was  a  merchant  at  Bris- 
tol, whose  sympathies,  during  the  American  war,  seem  to  have  been  with 
the  American  colonies,  and  who  finally  came  to  South  Carolina,  where  he 


378 


POTTERY  AM)    PORCELAIN  OF  EXGLAXI). 


died,  and  was  buried  at  Camden,  in  1787.  In  1768,  according  to  Mr. 
t)wen,  he  commenced  work  in  a  company  in  which  several  others  vent- 
ured some  capital.  It  does  not  appear  that  they  actually  made  porcelain 
for  sale  until  1773,  when  Champion  bought  out  Cookworthy,  of  Plymouth, 
engaging  to  pay  him  a  royalty. 

After  this  purchase,  Champion  applied  to  Parliament  for  an  extension 
of  the  Cookworthy  patent.  This  aroused  Josiah  Wedgwood  and  the  Staf- 
fordshire potters  to  strenuous  opposition,  and  brought  out  the  usual  char- 
acteristics of  patent  contests.  Wedgwood  conducted  the  opposition,  and 
in  the  course  of  the  proceedings  appears  as  the  shrewd  commercial  pot- 
ter, looking  to  personal  interest  as  the  primary  motive,  and  determined 
that  he  as  well  as  others  should  enjoy,  without  cost,  the  benefits  of  Cook- 
worthy's  discoveries.  The  decision  was  substantially  against  Wedgwood  and 
his  friends,  the  patent  being  extended,  with  the  proviso  that  the  Cornish 
clays  and  stone  might  be  used  by  others  for  pottery,  but  not  for  porcelain. 

Champion  continued  the  works 
until  about  1781,  when  he  transfer- 
red the  patent  to  a  Staffordshire 
company.  The  decorations  as  well 
as  the  shapes  were  copied  exten- 
sively from  Dresden  and  Sevres, 
and  Champion  used  the  Dresden 
mark.  Vases  were  made  of  which 
Champion  was  especially  proud, 
sometimes  hexagonal,  painted  with 
"exotic  birds,"  having  flowers  in 
relief,  and  painted  with  Chinese  sub- 
jects, or  with  birds  and  butterflies, 
on  shagreen  or  blue  salmon -scale 
grounds.  A  vase,  sold  in  1871  for 
three  hundred  and  five  pounds,  had 
two  sides  decorated  in  blue,  the  oth- 
er four  in  colors.  Oval  and  circular 
plaques,  with  flowers  in  relief  sur- 
rounding arms  or  emblems,  were 
275.   Bristol  Vase.    Height  12  inches.    (Fry  Coll.)         ,.  L    i       /-\  j-  ,i  -^ 

well  executed.     One  of  these,  with 

a   portrait  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  brought  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds 
at  the  same  sale  with  the  vase  above  referred  to. 

Champion  was  a  warm  friend  of  Edmund  Burke,  and  he  and  his  wife 
presented  to  Mrs.  Burke  a  service  of  Bristol  porcelain.     Burke,  while  con- 


ENGLAND. 


379 


testing  the  election  in  Bristol,  formed  a  friendship  for  Mr.  Joseph  Smith, 
a  merchant,  and  ordered  from  Cham- 
pion a  service,  unlimited  in  expense, 
which  he  presented  to  Mrs.  Smith. 
This  service  has  been  dispersed,  and 
occasional  specimens  have  come  into 
sales.  At  the  same  sale  above  men- 
tioned one  cup  and  saucer  of  the 
service  brought  ninety-three  pounds. 
The  festoon  style  of  decoration  on 
this  service,  a  piece  of  which  is  here 
illustrated  (276),  was  somewhat  char- 
acteristic of  Bristol  porcelain.  Nu- 
merous bubbles  or  pin-holes  are  visi- 
ble on  some  specimens ;  and  another 
characteristic  (marking  Plymouth 
ware  also)  is  a  series  of  spiral  ridges, 
formed  by  the  fingers  of  the  work- 
man in  turning  the  piece  on  the 
wheel.  Fire -cracks,  warnings,  and 
other  defects  mark  Bristol  wares. 
No  artistic  merit  is  visible  to  justify  276.  Bristol  Cup  and  Saucer.  (The  Burke-Smith 
the  high  prices  paid  for  specimens, 

but  the  scarceness  of  the  good  wares,  and  the  rarity  of  the  Plymouth  and 
Bristol  hard-pastes,  may  account  for  them. 

Cheap  wares,  known  as  "cottage  china,"  were  made,  which  were  dec- 
orated, without  care,  in  scattered  flowers,  green,  red,  lilac,  gray,  and  pale 
blue,  roses  predominating.  Borders  of  ribbons  in  festoons,  with  bows  and 
small  bunches  of  flowers  at  the  knots,  are  characteristic  of  this  as  well  as 
the  better  class  of  Bristol  porcelain.  Marks  are  very  rare  on  the  cottage 
china.     Decorators'  numbers  are  on  the  bottoms  roughly  painted. 

It  was  sometimes  the  practice  to  bake  the  paste  and  glaze  at  one  firing, 
instead  of  first  baking  the  unglazed  ware.  Champion  also  used  glaze  not 
fritted  (that  is,  not  first  melted,  powdered,  and  reduced  with  water  to  a 
creamy  consistence).  This  produced,  by  the  escape  of  gas  from  the  inte- 
rior, the  peculiar  bubble  or  pin-hole  appearance  in  the  glaze  which  has 
been  mentioned  as  a  characteristic.  The  wares,  like  those  of  Plymouth, 
are  of  unequal  hardness,  but  usually  very  hard,  and  the  glaze  is  not  always 
pure  or  perfect. 

The  marks  on  Bristol  porcelain  are  a  study.     Many  of  the  best  speci- 


:;so 


POTTERY   ASI>    PORCELAIN  OF  EXOLAXD. 


mens,  notably  the  vases,  are  without  mark.  The  ordinary  mark  is  a 
simple  cross  in  blue  or  slate  color.  Numbers  which  accompany  this  arc 
said  to  be  those  of  decorators.  They  are  not  found  above  21.  If  in  gold, 
the  number  indicates  the  gilder.  No.  1  is  supposed,  to  be  Henry  Bone,  the 
enameller;  No.  2,  William  Stephens;  but  no  others  are  identified.  The 
letter  B  is  another  mark,  but  not  to  be  always  depended  on.  It  occurs  on 
other  porcelain  as  a  decorator's  mark.  The  Dresden  crossed  swords,  the 
Plymouth  mark,  and  various  combinations  were  used. 

Beyond  the   quality  of  rareness,  there  is  little  in  Bristol  porcelain  to 
attract  the  notice  of  the  collector. 


2*77.  Bristol  Porcelain.     (Owen.) 

Pottery  was  made  at  Bristol  from  early  times.  Tiles  were  made  after 
17<»0  (being  known  with  dates  from  1703  onward)  at  a  pottery  owned 
by  Richard  Frank.  Joseph  Ring,  in  1784,  founded  the  Bristol  Pottery, 
which  name  appears  on  its  wares,  and  sometimes  a  simple  blue  or  lead- 
colored  cross.  This  cross  mark,  however,  is  common  on  pottery,  proba- 
bly as  a  workman's  mark;  and  it  is  not  always  easy  to  distinguish  Bris- 
tol from  other  English  pottery.  It  is  not  important,  as  the  wares  were 
chiefly  ordinary  commercial  potteries. 

Copper-lustred  wares  were  made  at  Brisltnoton  in  the  last  century, 
of  coarse  and  uninteresting  character. 

Lowestoft. — In  175fi,  a  factory  was  founded  at  Lowestoft,  which,  after 
considerable  difficulty,  went  into  active  operation  in  1757,  under  the  man- 
agement of  Walker,  Brown.  A:  Co.,  and  for  twenty  years  made  pottery  and 
good  soft-paste  porcelain.  This  ware  was  not  remarkable  for  beauty,  but 
the  porcelain  was  of  fair  quality,  decorated  in  blue  and  in  colors,  with  Chi- 
nese patterns,  views  of  Lowestoft  and  the  neighborhood,  marine  subjects, 
and   (lowers.     Red  and  gold  bands  and  morone  or  scale-pattern  borders 


ENGLAND. 


381 


Whether  hard-paste  porcelain  was  or  was  not  made  at  Lowestoft  has 
been  in  doubt ;  but  the  researches  of  Mr.  Chaffers  have  gathered  such  an 
amount  of  evidence  that,  until  it  is  overthrown,  we  are  compelled  to  ac- 
cept the  fact  that  in  or  about  1775  the  factory  began  to  produce  true  por- 
celain, and  thereafter  made  large  quantities,  quite  closely  resembling  the 
Chinese  in  paste  and  quality. 

This  hard-paste  porcelain  was  decorated  usually  in  very  simple,  some- 
times Oriental,  styles,  and  seems  to  have  been  sold  in  the  markets  as  Ori- 
ental porcelain.  The  only  possible  explanation  of  the  existence  of  a  large 
class  of  wares  is  that  they  were  produced  at  Lowestoft,  or  that  the  Lowes- 
toft makers  had  some  means  of  ob- 
taining from  China  or  Japan  an  abun- 
dance of  white  ware,  which  they  dec- 
orated. There  is  no  probability  of 
the  latter  suffo-estion  beino-  true.  An 
undecorated  white  Chinese  teapot  or 
cup  and  saucer  is  such  a  rarity  in  Eng- 
land and  America  that  probably  no 
reader  of  this  ever  saw  such  a  speci- 
men. There  is  no  evidence  that  such 
wares  were  ever  imported  into  Eng- 
land, but  abundant  evidence  to  the 
contrary.  Some  of  the  decorations 
of  the  Lowestoft  wares  are  so  thor- 
oughly characteristic  that  no  doubt 
can  exist  as  to  their  being  European  and  of  one  locality.  All  Chinese 
wares  were  subject  to  a  heavy  duty  in  England  in  1775-1800,  and  it  was 
impossible  to  import  and  decorate  them,  and  compete  with  other  English 
factories  in  their  sale. 

Many  of  the  decorations  were  by  Thomas  Hose,  a  Frenchman,  who 
painted  roses  without  stems,  or  with  hair-line  stems,  small  bouquets  lying 
in  mass  on  the  surface,  festoons  of  small  roses  and  green  leaves.  The 
pieces  were  rarely  profuse  in  decoration.  More  frequently  a  single  flower, 
or  a  small  bunch,  was  the  only  decoration.  The  borders  were  frequently 
decorated  with  a  band  of  deep  rich  blue,  with  gold  stars,  meander  and 
other  patterns  on  it  and  under  it.  This  blue,  which  is  sometimes  a  thick 
enamel,  is  quite  characteristic.  Red  and  russet-brown  borders  are  also  fre- 
quent. The  scale  pattern,  in  a  purplish  pink,  abounds.  On  vases  a  run- 
ning border  of  flowers  is  sometimes  raised  on  the  surface  in  opaque  white, 
and  a  raised  border  of  vine -leaves,  with  foxes,  squirrels,  and  other  ani- 


27S.  Saucer:  Lowestoft  porcelain. 


382  POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 

mals,  sometimes  surrounds  landscapes  in  brown  monochrome,  or  Chinese 
figures. 

Large  quantities  of  this  porcelain  came  to  America,  and  it  is  now  more 
plentiful  here  than  any  other  kind  of  porcelain  of  the  last  century.  In 
most  families  possessing  it,  there  are  traditions,  firmly  believed,  that  it  was 
brought  from  China  by  an  ancestor.  In  several  cases,  where  such  tradi- 
tions were  told  us,  we  have  been  able  to  obtain  from  old  persons  the  evi- 
dence that  the  services  came  from  England.  Thus,  in  one  case,  some 
years  ago,  where  a  service  in  our  collection  had  been  procured  from  a 
family  who  believed  and  had  repeated  to  us  such  a  tradition,  we  showed  a 
specimen  to  a  lady  of  clear  intellect  and  memory,  who  was  then  eighty- 
three  years  old,  and  asked  her  if  she  remembered  it.  She  replied  instantly 
that  it  was  a  piece  from  a  breakfast  service  presented  to  her  sister  by  her 
husband  as  a  wedding  gift.  "Do  you  remember  where  it  was  bought  '." 
"  Of  course  I  do.  We  young  people  talked  a  great  deal  about  it,  and  I 
remember  perfectly  that  - — -  ordered  it  from  England,  and  that  it  came 
out  in  a  Liverpool  ship ;  and  I  remember  when  it  arrived,  and  how  we 
admired  the  pattern  (which  had  special  reference  to  the  name  of  the  lady), 
and  the  monogram  in  gold  on  each  piece.  Porcelain,"  added  the  lady, 
"  was  not  so  common  in  my  young  days  as  now,  and  such  a  service  was 
something  to  be  remembered."  It  will  probably  be  found  in  many  sim- 
ilar cases  that  family  porcelain  supposed  to  be  Chinese  is  of  English 
manufacture. 

Crests,  initials,  and  arms  are  common  on  Lowestoft  wares.  Shields 
containing  initials,  with  birds  as  supporters,  escutcheons  with  delicate  pen- 
cillings  in  deep  blue,  are  also  frequent.  Pieces  are  sometimes  very  un- 
even on  the  surface,  especially  large  pieces,  as  if  from  unequal  contraction 
in  the  paste  when  baking,  or  rude  work  in  the  moulding. 

There  is  a  large  class  of  porcelains  decorated  with  beautiful,  but  gen- 
erally stiff,  bouquets,  and  with  vine  borders  in  high  relief,  sometimes  with 
small  animals  also  in  high  relief,  which  are  Oriental,  and  are  classed  by 
some  collectors  as  "Porcelain  of  the  Indies."  These  are  supposed  to  have 
been  made  on  special  patterns  furnished  to  the  Oriental  factories  by  the 
East  India  companies.  They  resemble  European  work  in  the  decoration, 
and  many  of  the  Lowestoft  paintings  seem  to  be  imitations  of  these. 

It  is  necessary,  therefore,  to  be  very  cautious  in  classifying  wares  as  of 
Lowestoft  fabric.  Although  no  undecorated  porcelain  was  imported  into 
England,  we  do  not  know  that  the  same  was  true  in  Holland,  whose  India 
company  brought  out  great  quantities  of  porcelain.  We  have  in  our  col- 
lection a  number  of  examples  which  we  believe  to  have  been  decorated  in 


ENGLAND.  383 


Holland.  Many  specimens  of  the  Chinese  blue-and-white  have  addition- 
al color  decorations,  chiefly  in  red,  and  we  know  that  at  Delft  this  deco- 
rating of  Oriental  wares  was  abundantly  practised.  The  presence  of  a 
simple  decoration  like  a  flower,  or  sprig  of  flowers,  in  European  style  on 
a  porcelain  apparently  Oriental  is  not  a  sufficient  reason  for  classing  the 
porcelain  as  European.  Many  such  pieces  were  painted  in  Japan  and  in 
China.     And  others  are  possibly  the  work  of  decorators  in  Holland. 

A  large  bowl  in  our  collection  is  of  the  tinest  Chinese  porcelain.  The 
decoration  consists  of  a  subject  repeated  on  opposite  sides,  and  executed 
by  an  artist  without  superior  in  Europe,  so  exceedingly  delicate  and  ex- 
quisite are  the  drawing  and  finish.  The  subject  is  a  caricature,  the  figure 
of  a  man,  his  right  half  dressed  in  clerical  costume,  his  left  half  in  the 
uniform  of  a  soldier  carrying  a  musket.  He  stands  before  a  house,  in  a 
garden,  an  orange-tree  behind  him,  which  a  pig  is  about  to  attack.  At 
his  feet,  on  the  clerical  side,  lies  an  open  book,  on  which  we  read  Cate- 
chismus  ;  on  his  military  side,  a  scroll  headed  Priviligien.  This  specimen 
illustrates  a  class  of  ware  of  which  the  porcelain  seems  unquestionably 
Chinese,  while  the  decoration  was  certainly  executed  by  a  skilful  Eu- 
ropean artist  of  the  highest  class.  Some  Lowestoft  wares  are  of  peculiar 
paste  and  glaze,  clearly  not  Oriental,  and  these  are  easily  assigned ;  but 
specimens  of  the  class  now  referred  to  must  be  examined  with  caution. 

The  Lowestoft  works  were  closed  in  the  early  part  of  this  century, 
about  1804,  or  possibly  somewhat  later.  Xo  marks  are  known.  Speci- 
mens must  be  selected  by  the  paste  and  decorations.  The  blue-and-white 
are  exceedingly  like  Oriental.  A  few  specimens,  with  raised  hawthorn 
blossoms  or  with  pierced  sides,  are  known.  The  glaze  is  not  always  of  the 
same  color,  varying  from  a  tolerably  pure  white  to  a  light  shade  of  buff, 
and  sometimes  having  a  pearly  character,  like  that  produced  by  the  use  of 
bismuth. 

At  Yarmouth,  towards  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  business 
of  decorating  potteries  made  elsewhere  was  carried  on  by  a  potter  named 
Absolon.  Views  of  Yarmouth,  marine  and  other  subjects,  arms,  inscrip- 
tions, and  mottoes  are  on  the  wares,  which  are  generally  stamped  with  an 
arrow,  the  mark  of  an  unknown  pottery,  and  signed  Absolon  Yarmd,  or 
W.  Absolon,  Yarm.  The  name  is  also  found  on  wares  marked  Turner, 
impressed. 

Between  1605  and  1728,  Mr.  Francis  Place,  of  the  Manor  House,  York, 
made  some  experiments  in  pottery,  producing  cups  and  mugs.  Horace 
AValpole  says,  "  I  have  a  coffee-cup  of  his  ware  ;  it  is  of  gray  earth,  with 
streaks  of  black,  and  not  superior  to  common  earthenware." 


38-J  POTTERY  AND    PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 


In  1 T ♦  >< ►,  at  Leeds,  two  brothers  named  Green  made  black  wares;  and 
about  177."),  Humble.  Green,  A:  Co.  made  cream -colored  ware.  Jn  L786, 
Hartley,  Greens,  cV  Co.  published  a  catalogue  of  articles  of  queen's  or 
cream-colored  ware  made  by  them  at  Leeds  Pottery,  with  a  great  variety 
of  other  articles,  and  "the  same  enamelled,  printed,  or  ornamented  with 
gold  to  anv  pattern  ;  also  with  coats  of  arms,  ciphers,  landscapes,  etc."  A 
German  edition  of  this  catalogue  is  known  of  1783,  and  a  French  edition 
of  1785,  indicating  a  large  Continental  trade.  The  manufacture  has  con- 
tinued down  to  the  present.  The  Leeds  white  wares  are  of  the  general 
kinds  made  in  Staffordshire,  the  surface  appearing  somewhat  softer  and 
more  milk}7.  Perforated  and  basket  or  wicker  work  was  made  in  great 
variety,  and  embossed  masks,  flowers,  and  other  patterns  abound.  Paint- 
ings of  flowers  and  insects  and  transfer  prints  are  not  uncommon,  and 
figures  and  groups  are  known.  Marks  are  uncommon,  and  when  found 
are  usually  Leeds  Pottery,  Hartley  Greens  &  Co.,  Leeds  Pottery,  im- 
pressed. C  G,  for  Charles  Green ;  G  under  a  crown,  and  an  arrow-head, 
are  also  Leeds  marks. 

Don  Pottery,  so  called,  was  made  near  Doncaster  by  John  Green,  in 
1790 :  and  this  seems  to  have  been  a  branch  of  the  Leeds  pottery,  its  prod- 
ucts being  in  all  respects  similar.  The  marks  were  Don  Pottery,  or 
Green  Don  Pottery,  impressed.  In  1834,  these  works  became  the  prop- 
erty of  Mr.  Samuel  Barker,  who  adopted  for  a  mark  the  forepaw  of  a 
lion  holding  a  flag  inscribed  Don,  and  underneath,  Pottery,  and  occasion- 
ally his  own  name. 

Castleford,  near  Leeds,  was  the  seat  of  a  pottery,  founded  in  1770, 
by  Mr.  David  Dunderdale,  where  black  ware  in  Wedgwood's  style  was 
made,  and  also  a  very  fine  white  stone-ware,  of  which  much  seems  to  have 
come  to  America,  where  specimens  are  numerous.  Teapots  were  made, 
sometimes  having  sliding  lids,  or  lids  hinged  on  by  metal  pins.  Table 
wares  were  made  with  the  surface  divided  into  compartments  by  patterns 
in  raised  lines,  which  are  sometimes  colored  blue,  and  with  raised  figures 
and  groups  in  medallions  on  the  white  ground,  or  on  blue,  brown,  or 
black  grounds.  Liberty,  the  American  eagle,  and  other  raised-work  de- 
vices relating  to  this  country  were  used.  Specimens  are  occasionally 
marked  D.  I).  &  Co.,  Castleford;  others  have  two  long  lines  crossing 
each  other  in  raised  slip;  and  others  the  number  22  impressed,  but  more 
have  no  mark.     Some  of  these  Castleford  wares  are  exceedingly  pretty. 

William  Tomlinson  had  a  pottery  at  Ferrybridge,  in  1792,  in  which 
Ralph  Wedgwood,  a  relative  of  Josiah,  became  a  partner  in  1796,  and  the 
mark  Wedgwood  &  Co.  was  adopted.     The  wares  are  poor  imitations  of 


ENGLAND. 


385 


the  genuine  Wedgwood  jasper  and  queen's  wares.  Other  "Wedgwoods 
were  potters  in  Yorkshire,  and  the  name  F.  Wedgwood  occurs  impressed 
on  cream-ware. 

The  following  list,  which  we  take  from  an  excellent  little  book  ("Eng- 
lish Pottery  and  Porcelain,"  London:  the  Bazaar  office),  will  be  found  con- 
venient for  reference.  It  includes  many  potters  not  elsewhere  named  in 
this  volume,  some  of  whose  works  are  good,  but  of  no  great  historical  or 
art  importance. 


ALPHABETICAL  LIST  OF  NAMES  AXD  INITIALS  FOUND  ON  ENGLISH  WARES. 


Absolon,  W. — Yarmouth  ;  1 8th  century. 

Adams  (William) — Tunstall,  Staffordshire  ;  18th 
century. 

Adams,  J. — Tunstall,  Staffordshire ;  1 8th  century. 

Aynsley,  J. — Lane  End,  Staffordshire;  18th  cen- 
tury. 

Bailey  and  Batkin — La  End,  Staffordshire;  19th 
century. 

Birch — Staffordshire;  18th  century. 

Booth,  E.ioch — Tunstall;  18th  century. 

Bolt  and  Co. — Staffordshire. 

Bournes  Potteries  —  Belper  and  Deiiby,  Derby- 
shire;  18th  and  19th  centuries. 

Brameld — Rockingham;   19th  century. 

Bridgwood  and  Son — Staffordshire ;  19th  century. 

Bulkelev  and  Bent — Staffordshire  ;   1 8th  century. 

C.  and  G.  (Copeland  and  Garret) — Stoke- upon- 
Trent;  19th  century. 

C.  G.  (Charles  Green)  — Leeds,  Yorkshire;  18th 
century. 

C.  and  H.  (Cookson  and  Harding) — Staffordshire  ; 

18th  century. 

Cadogan —  Rockingham,  Yorkshire ;  18th  and 
19th  centuries. 

Chaffers,  Richard — Liverpool ;  18th  century. 

Child— Tunstall,  Staffordshire;  18th  century. 

Clews — Cobridge,  Staffordshire;   18th  century. 

Close  and  Co. — Hanley,  Staffordshire ;  18th  cen- 
tury. 

Copeland— Stoke-upon-Trent,  Staffordshire;  19th 
century. 

Copeland,  late  Spode  —  Stoke-upon-Trent,  Staf- 
fordshire ;   19th  century. 

Crystal  ware — Staffordshire;   18th  century. 

D.  D.  and  Co.  (David  Dunderdale  and  Co.) — Cas- 
tleford,  Yorkshire;   18th  and  19th  centuries. 


Davenport  — Longport,  Staffordshire;  18th  and 
19th  centuries. 

Dawson — Sunderland;   19th  century. 

Dillwyn  and  Co. — Swansea  ;   19th  century. 

Dixon,  Austin,  and  Co.  —  Sunderland;  19th  cen- 
tury. 

Don  Pottery  —  Doncaster,  Yorkshire;  18th  and 
19th  centuries. 

Doulton — Lambeth;  18th  and  19th  centuries. 

Dudson — Staffordshire;   L8th  centuryt 

Dwight,  J. — Fulham  ;   17th  and  18th  centuries. 

Eastwood — Staffordshire;   18th  century. 

Elers — Staffordshire  ;  17th  and  18th  centuries. 

F.  G. — Uncertain. 

Fell — Newcastle-upon-Tyne;  18th  and  19th  cen- 
turies. 

Fell  and  Co. — Newcastle-upon-Tyne;  19th  cen- 
tury. 

Freeling  and  Co. — Staffordshire. 

Fulham  Pottery — Fulham  ;  19th  century. 

Gordon,  R.  G. — Staffordshire;   18th  century. 

G.  (Green) — Leeds,  Yorkshire ;  18th  century. 

G.  and  crown — Leeds,  Yorkshire;    18th  century. 

Green,  Don  Pottery  —  Doncaster,  Staffordshire; 
18th  century. 

Green,  Stephen — Lambeth;  18th  and  19th  cen- 
turies. 

Gunther  and  Co.,  S.  B.  B.— Staffordshire  ?  (Prob- 
ably not  potters.) 

II.  and  S. — Uncertain — Staffordshire? 

Eackwood — Shelton,  Staffordshire;  lsth  century. 

Hackwood  and  Co. — Shelton,  Staffordshire  ;  19th 
century. 

Harding — Staffordshire;   18th  century. 

Harley,  T. — Lane  End,  Staffordshire ;  18th  cen- 
tury. 


386 


POTTERY  AND   FORCE  LA  IS   OF  EM;  LAND. 


Harrison,  <!. — Staffordshire;  18th  century. 

Hartley,  Greens,  and  Co. — Leeds,  Yorkshire;  18th 
century. 

Heath — Staffordshire  ;   18th  century. 

Herculaneum — Liverpool;  18th  and  19th  centu- 
ries. 

Hollins,  S. — Shelton,  Staffordshire ;  18th  century. 

Hollins,  T.  and  J.— Shelton,  Staffordshire ;  18th 
century. 

I.  E.  15. — Uncertain. 

J.  Y.  (J.  Yates) — Staffordshire ;  18th  century. 

Jobson — Staffordshire;  18th  century. 

Keeling,  J. — Hanley,  Staffordshire  ;  18th  century. 

Lakin — Staffordshire;  18th  century. 

Lakin  and  Poole — Staffordshire  ;  18th  century. 

Leeds  Pottery — Leeds,  Yorkshire;   18th  century. 

Lockett,  J. — Lane  End,  Staffordshire ;  18th  cen- 
tury. 

Low  esby — Leicestershire  ;  19th  century. 

M.,  and  a  number  (Thomas  Miles) — Staffordshire  ; 
18th  and  19th  centuries. 

M.  N.  (  Mayer  and  Newbold) — Staffordshire ;  18th 
century. 

Marshall  and  Co. — Staffordshire;   18th  century. 

Mason,  M. — Lane  Delph,  Staffordshire  ;  1 8th  and 
19th  centuries. 

Mason's  patent  Iron-stone  China — Lane  Delph, 
Staffordshire;   18th  and  19th  centuries. 

Mason's  Cambrian  Argil — Lane  Delph,  Stafford- 
shire;  18th  and  19th  centuries. 

Mayer,  E.,  Hanley — Staffordshire;   18th  century. 

Mayer,  Joseph,  and  Co. —  Hanley,  Staffordshire; 
18th  century. 

Meigh— Hanley,  Staffordshire;  18th  and  19th 
centuries. 

Meigh,  J.,  and  Sons — Hanley,  Staffordshire  ;  18th 
and  19th  centuries. 

Miles — Hanley,  Staffordshire  ;   18th  century. 

Milson — Bristol;   19th  century. 

Minton — Stoke -upon  -Trent,  Staffordshire  ;  18th 
and  19th  centuries. 

Minton  and  Boyle  —  Stoke -upon -Trent,  Stafford- 
shire;  L  8th  and  1 9th  centuries. 

Mist,  London — Staffordshire;    18th  century. 

Moore  and  Co. — South  wick ;  18th  and  19th  cen- 
turies. 

Mortlock  Cadogan  —  Rockingham,  Yorkshire  ; 
1  9th  century. 

Moseley — Staffordshire;  18th  century. 


Myat,  T. — Lane   Delph,  Staffordshire;   18th   ecu- 

tury. 
Xeale,  .J.  Hanley  —  Hanley,  Staffordshire;    18th 

century. 

Xeale  and  Co. — Hanley,  Staffordshire;  18th  cen- 
tury. 

Xeale  and  Wilson — Hanley,  Staffordshire ;  18th 
century. 

Xeeld — Staffordshire;   18th  century. 

Nell — Staffordshire;   18th  century. 

Xewcastle — Newcastle;  18th  and  19th  centuries. 

Opaque  Porcelain — Swansea;   19th  century. 

P.  (Pennington) — Liver] 1 ;   18th  century. 

Palmer,  Hanley  —  Hanley,  Staffordshire;  18th 
century. 

Palmer  and  Xeale — Hanley,  Staffordshire  ;  18th 
century. 

Palmer  and  Yoyez — Hanley,  Staffordshire;  18th 
century. 

Pearl- ware  —  Lane  End  (Messrs.  Cheatham  and 
Wboley),  Staffordshire;   18th  century. 

Phillips,  E. — Longport,  Staffordshire;  18th  cen- 
tury. 

Plant,  B. — Lane  End,  Staffordshire;  18th  century. 

Poole,  R. — Staffordshire;   18th  century. 

Pratt,  E.  and  R.  and  Co. — Fenton,  Staffordshire; 
19th  century. 

Richus  and  Toft — Staffordshire;   19th  century. 

Ridgway— Shelton,  Staffordshire;  18th  and  19th 
centuries. 

Ridgway  and  Sons — Shelton,  Staffordshire;  18th 
and  19th  centuries. 

Riley's  Semi-china — Staffordshire;  19th  century. 

Rockingham — Yorkshire;  18th  and  19th  centu- 
ries. 

Rogers — Staffordshire;   18th  eentury. 

S.  (Salopian)  —  Caughley,  Shropshire ;  18th  and 
19th  centuries. 

S.  and  B. — Sibury  and  Bridgwood,  Staffordshire ; 
19th  century. 

S.  and  Co.  (J.  Shore  and  Co.)— Isle  worth  ;  19th 
century. 

Sadler — Liverpool;    18th  century. 

Sadler  and  Green — Liverpool;    18th  century. 

Salopian — Caughley,  Shropshire  ;  18th  and  19th 
centuries. 

Salt— Staffordshire;    18th  century. 

Sans,  William — Staffordshire;   17th  century. 

Scott — Suuderland  ;   18th  and  19th  centuries. 


ENGLAND. 


387 


Sewell — Sunderland;  18th  and  19th  centuries. 

Sewell  and  Donkin — Sunderland;  18th  and  19th 
centuries. 

Sewells  and  Co. — Sunderland;  18th  and  19th 
centuries. 

Sharpe — Swadlincote,  Burton-on-Trent ;  19th  cen- 
tury. 

Shorthose — Staffordshire;  18th  and  19th  centu- 
ries. 

Shorthose  and  Co. — Staffordshire;  18th  and  19th 
centuries. 

Shorthose  and  Heath — Staffordshire;  18th  and 
19th  centuries. 

Sneyd,  T. — Hanley,  Staffordshire  ;   19th  century. 

Snitzer — Lambeth;   18th  century. 

Spode  —  Stoke  -  upon  -  Trent,  Staffordshire  ;  18th 
and  19th  centuries. 

Spode,  Felspar  porcelain  —  Stoke  -  upon  -  Trent, 
Staffordshire ;  1 8th  and  1 9th  centuries. 

Spode,  Son,  and  Copeland — Stoke -upon -Trent, 
Staffordshire;  18th  and  19th  centuries. 

Steel — Burslem,  Staffordshire ;  18th  century. 

Stephenson,  A. — Staffordshire;   18th  century. 

Swansea — 18th  and  19th  centuries. 

Swansea,  Dillwyn  and  Co. — 18th  and  19th  centu- 
ries. 

T. — Staffordshire;  18th  century. 

T.  H.  and  0. — Uncertain. 

Talor,  William — Staffordshire;   17th  century. 

Toft,  Ralph— Staffordshire  ;   17th  century. 

Toft,  Thomas — Staffordshire  ;   17th  century. 

Turner  —  Lane  End,  Staffordshire  ;  18th  centu- 
ry- 
Turner  and  Co. — Lane  End,  Staffordshire;  18th 
century. 

Turner's  Patent — Lane  End,  Staffordshire ;  18th 
century. 


Turner,  Ralf — Staffordshire;  18th  century. 

Twyford,  J. — Staffordshire;  18th  century. 

Voyez — Hanlev,  Staffordshire  ;   18th  century. 

Voyez,  J. — Hanley,  Staffordshire;   18th  century. 

W  (*  *  *). — Leeds,  Yorkshire ;   18th  century. 

W.  R.  and  Co. — Etruscan,  Staffordshire;  19th 
century. 

W.  S.  and  Co.,  on  Stockton  ware;   19th  century. 

W.  T.  and  Co.,  on  Fulliam  ware;   18th  century. 

Wagstaff — Vauxhall ;  18th  century. 

Walton — Staffordshire;   18th  century. 

Warburton,  J. — Staffordshire;   18th  century. 

Wedgwood — Burslem  and  Etruria,  Staffordshire  ; 
18th  century. 

Wedgwood,  Etruria — Burslem  and  Etruria,  Staf- 
fordshire;  18th  century. 

Wedgwood  and  Bentley — Burslem  and  Etruria, 
Staffordshire;   18th  century. 

Wedgwood  and  Bentley,  Etruria — Burslem  and 
Etruria,  Staffordshire;  18th  century. 

W.  and  B.  (Wedgwood  and  Bentley)  —  Burslem 
and  Etruria,  Staffordshire;    18th  century. 

Wedgwood  and  Co. — Ferrybridge,  near  Ponte- 
fract;  18th  century. 

Wedgwood,  F. — Stockton;   19th  century. 

Wedgewood — Stockton;  19th  century. 

Wilson — Hanley,  Staffordshire  ;   18th  century. 

Wood,  Enoch — Burslem,  Staffordshire  ;  18th  cen- 
tury. 

Wood,  Enoch,  and  Sons — Burslem,  Staffordshire  ; 
19th  century. 

Wood,  Ralph — Burslem,  Staffordshire ;  18th  cen- 
tury. 

Wood  and  Caldwell  —  Burslem,  Staffordshire  ; 
19th  century. 

Wright,  John  —  Staffordshire;  17th  and  18th 
centuries. 


PAET    V. 

POTTERY    AND    PORCELAIN    OF 
AMERICA. 


I.-ANCIENT   AMERICAN   POTTERY. 

The  history  of  ceramic  art  in  America  prior  to  the  discovery  of  the 
Western  Continent  by  the  people  of  modern  Europe  is  buried  in  obscu- 
rity. For  the  present  nothing  is  known  about  it,  except  from  the  nu- 
merous specimens  gathered  in  public  and  private  collections,  which  are  ar- 

ranged  only  as  remarkable  illustrations  of 

an  unknown  civilization,  without  order  of 
date,  and  without  classification  of  styles. 
There  is  much  reason  to  hope  that  careful 
investigation  of  the  localities  in  which  an- 
cient potteries  are  discovered,  and  of  the  cir- 
cumstances surrounding  them,  will  yet  shed 
light  on  the  history  of  this  art,  and  that 
pottery  will  in  America,  as  elsewhere,  prove 
to  be  of  importance  in  ethnological  studies. 
A  descriptive  account  of  the  vast  vari- 
ety of  American  potteries  would  require 
too  much  space  for  the  limits  of  this  work, 
nor  would  it  be  of  as  much  practical  bene- 
fit to  the  reader  as  the  illustrations  of  some  of  the  most  interesting  and 
characteristic  specimens  which  are  here  presented. 

Ancient  pottery,  in  greater  or  less  quantity,  has  been  discovered,  usu- 
ally in  tombs,  in  the  western  part  of  the  United  States,  in  Mexico,  Cen- 
tral America,  and  Peru,  while  the  Atlantic  coast  has  yielded  very  i'vw 
specimens,  and  those  of  an  uninteresting  character.  From  Peru  north- 
ward to  Alaska,  on  the  Pacific  side  of  the  continent,  the  character  of  the 
potteries  is  of  much  interest,  as  they  sometimes  exhibit  remarkable  artistic 


279.   Indian  Vase  :   incised  decoration 
(Found  in  Ohio.) 


ANCIENT  AMERICAN  POTTERY. 


389 


qualities.  The  same  general  styles  of  color  decoration  occur  on  potteries 
found  in  Peru,  Central  America,  Mexico,  Colorado,  and  eastward  to  Mis- 
souri, while  a  class  of  art  decidedly  different  in  characteristics  and  prob- 
able origin  prevails  in  the  pottery  of  Alaska, 
its  influence  apparently  extending  southward 
and  eastward  till  it  meets  that  of  Peru.  In- 
dications of  both  styles  are  found  in  the  west- 
ern portion  of  the  United  States;  but,  with 
our  present  amount  of  information,  it  is  im- 
possible to  affirm  whether  this  is  due  to  local 
manufacture,  or  to  the   importation   of    the 

works  of  the  North  and  the  South  into  the    2S0.  Indian  Vase:  incised  decora- 
central  regions.  tion-    (Fouud  in  ohia) 

All  the  specimens  hitherto  found  are  apparently  Soft  Pottery.  On 
the  Southern  products  we  frequently  find  a  thin  polish,  closely  resem- 
bling the  lustre  of  the  ancient  Greek,  possibly  produced  by  a  varnish. 
Color  decorations  are  abundant,  not  more  rude  than  those  of  the  Pheni- 
cian  and  Egypto-Phenician  potteries.  Mouldings  and  modellings  vary 
from  rude  and  barbarous  works  up  to  a  high  art  standard. 

There  is  such  a  relationship  between  specimens  of  the  potteries  found 
in  Peru,  Central  America,  Mexico,  and  thence  northward  to  Missouri,  that 


281.  Bottle:  Peruvian  pottery. 


2.s-2.  Bottle:  Peruvian  pottery. 


no  reasonable  doubt  can  exist  of  a  community  in  the  art.  At  the  same 
time  there  are  characteristics  of  local  fabrics  which  indicate  peculiarities 
of  taste  at  those  localities.  But  nothing  at  present  known  enables  us  to 
form  any  idea  of  the  point  of  origin  of  the  art  on  this  continent,  nor  do 


300 


POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN  IX  AMERICA. 


283.  The  Caballito.      (Found  at  Chiinu.) 


the  numerous  specimens  afford   indications  of  a  progressive  art  in  any 
locality. 

Specimens  of  ancient  American  wares  show  close  resemblances  to  an- 
cient European  fabrics,  and  theories 
of  their  origin  in  Greek  sources  have 
been  based  on  these  resemblances. 
Such  theories  may  be  dismissed,  for 
the  plain  reason  that  the  American 
potteries  bear  equally  close  resem- 
blance to  a  great  variety  of  wares, 
ancient  and  modern,  and  are,  in  fact, 
often  more  nearly  related  to  the  mod- 
ern fabrics  of  Europe  than  to  the  an- 
cient fabrics  of  Phenicia.  Occasional 
specimens  are  like  the  Phenician  in 
decoration  ;  others,  equally  remarka- 
ble in  resemblance  to  the  Greek;  others,  like  the  Italian  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  If  this  resemblance  proves  anything,  it  would  indicate  a  late 
derivation  of  art  instruction  from  Europe,  an  instruction  which  included 
hints  taken  from  the  whole  history  of  ceramic  art.  A  vase  illustrated  by 
Tschudi  ("Antiguedadas  Peruanas,"  plate  27)  has  a  decoration  in  hollow 

crosses  and  hollow  squares,  connected  in  reg- 
ular patterns,  colored  white,  black,  and  red, 
which  might  have  been  (and  perhaps  was)  ex- 
ecuted by  an  Italian. 

Other  specimens,  illustrated  in  the  same 
volume  (plate  36),  are  decorated  in  black,  red, 
and  white,  in  bands,  lines,  and  patterns  so 
Phenician  in  character  that  they  might  have 
ciime  from  the  temple-vaults  of  Kurium.  A 
Central  American  head  in  the  Trumbull- 
Prime  collection  has  for  a  cap  a  lizard,  the 
head  in  front,  the  feet  on  each  side,  the  body 
and  pendent  tail  behind,  precisely  like  the 
panther  or  lion  skin  cap  of  the  ancient  Greeks. 
( )n  a  black  Peruvian  bottle  in  our  collection, 
the  sole  ornament  is  a  lizard  winding  around 
284.  Bottle:  Peruvian  pottery.       the  ^^  holdi]Qg  ]lis  t;lii  in  his  mouth. 

The  meander  pattern,  a  scroll  drop  pattern,  and  other  familiar  Greek 
decorations  abound  in  colors  on  Peruvian  potteries,     P>ut  these  are  in  all 


ANCIENT  AMEBIC  AN  POTTERY. 


391 


cases  such  patterns  as  are  the  natural  result  and  growth  out  of  combina- 
tions of  straight  lines  in  cheeks,  and  circles  crossing  each  other  and  crossed 
by  straight  lines. 

The  colors  used  are  red,  black,  yellow,  and 
white.  Elaborate  paintings  are  occasionally  ex- 
ecuted. The  illustration  (280)  is  from  a  vase  in 
possession  of  Mr.  Squier,  this  being  only  an  ex- 
tract from  the  extensive  design,  which  repre- 
sents a  procession  approaching  a  king.  This 
class  of  paintings  presents  no  features  which 
give  any  hint  of  a  foreign  origin  of  the  art. 

It  may  sound  like  an  exaggeration,  but  it  is 
nevertheless  true,  that  at  some  period  the  Peru- 
vian potters  have  made  as  bold  artistic  work  as 
the  Egyptians,  Phenicians,  or  early  Greeks,  in 
models  of  the  human  head  and  countenance. 
Specimens  are  frequent  which  are  of  a  very  high  order  of  merit.  The 
vase  which  is  illustrated  (285)  is  marvellously  like  a  Greek  head  in  the 
Trumbull-Prime  collection.  Many  Peruvian  works  of  this  class  are  noble 
expressions  of  thought. 


285.  Jar:    Peruvian  pottery. 


286.  Painting  from  a  Peruvian  Vase. 


392 


POTTERY   AND   PORCELAIN  IN  AMERICA. 


When  were  these  artistic  works  produced?  Are  they  original  Peru- 
vian art,  or  do  they  belong  to  the  period  after  the 
arrival  of  Europeans  in  Peru? 

Some  scholars  assign  to  all  the  Peruvian  and 
Central  American  potteries  an  extreme  age.  ( )ne 
ceramic  authority  dates  his  specimens  thousands  of 
years  ago.  The  entire  question  of  the  period  of 
that  civilization  which  produced  these  works  of  art 
is  involved  in  such  gloom,  and  hitherto  so  little  lias 
been  offered  to  elucidate  the  mystery,  that  these 
dates  are  wholly  arbitrary,  without  support. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  works  of  high  art 
of  which  we  have  spoken  are  exceptional  specimens, 
and  do  not  form  a  class,  nor  are  there  known  speci- 
mens of  inferior  and  improving  work  in  the  same 
styles.  They  stand  as  wholly  distinct  from  the  gen- 
eral mass  of  American  pottery  as  if  they 
had  been  the  work  of  a  Greek  artist 
temporarily  resident  among  the  Peru- 
vian potters.  They  are  not  the  cul- 
mination of  any  known  school  of  art. 
The  three  specimens  from  Cuzco,  shown 
in  111.  289,  exhibit  the  extraordinary  in- 
termingling of  the  artistic  with  the  bar- 
barous, which  characterizes  all  collec- 
tions of  Peruvian  pottery.  The  head 
on  the  right  of  these  three  specimens 
is,  however,  important,  as  we  shall  presently  see  in  considering  the  age  of 

this  style  of  work. 


■_^7.  Vase  from  Santa. 


Peruvian  Coast  Pottery. 


In  examining  such  pot- 
teries, it  is  important  to 
avoid  the  hasty  conclusion 
to  which  many  students 
come  who  find  in  the  iden- 
tity of  simple  forms  and 
decorations  convincing  ev- 
idence of  relationship. 
Round  objects  in  pottery 
of  various  patterns  are  com- 


289.  Pottery  from  Cuzco.     (Collection  of  Senora  Zentino.)      mull   to   all   peoples,  savage 


/ 


ANCIENT  AMERICAN  POTTERY. 


393 


and  civilized,  because  the  most  easily  made.  Incised  decorations  are 
equally  common  for  the  same  reason.  Circles,  straight  lines,  herring-bone, 
check,  diamond,  and  other  simple  patterns,  are  universal.  Out  of  these 
early  decorations  grow  others,  which  are  quickly  perceived  by  the  artist's 
eye,  whether  Greek  or  Peruvian.  The  coincidence  of  such  simple  forms 
of  pottery  and  patterns  in  the  decoration  of  works  of  different  nations  is 
of  no  value  in  determining  relationship.  But  when  a  peculiar  form  has 
long  been  in  common  and  favorite  use  by  one  nation,  and  occasional  speci- 
mens of  the  same  form  are  found  among  the  works  of  another  nation  not 
accompanied  by  preceding  forms  from  which  it  might  have  grown,  there 
is  a  slight  ground  for  suspicion  that  the  latter 
may  have  been  suggested  by  the  former. 

The  old  Italian  form  of  water-pitcher  is 
perpetuated  in  the  most  common  modern 
form  of  ewer.  This  is  derived  from  ancient 
patterns,  but  came  into  a  peculiar  shape  in 
Italy  in  the  fifteenth  century.  An  illustra- 
tion is  given  at  page  171  of  a  boccala,  deco- 
rated at  Gubbio,  in  the  early  part  of  the  six- 
teenth century. 

In  the  Trunibull-Prime  collection  are  two 
large  ewers,  from  Central  America,  of  similar 
form,  one  in  black,  the  other  in  red,  pottery. 
We  illustrate  the  latter  (111.  290).  The  deco- 
rations are  incised  or  impressed,  circles  and 
semicircles  being  produced  with  the  end  of  a 
reed,  or  a  half  reed,  used  as  a  stamp.  The 
form  is  not  common  in  American  pottery.  It 
is  substantially  that  of  the  ewer  which  was 
common  in  Italy  and  Spain  when  the  Span- 
iards came  to  America.  We  incline  to  be- 
lieve these  ewers  made  after  the  Conquest,  on  European  models.  The 
decorations  are  similar  to  those  found  on  potteries  of  different  form.  If 
the  ewers  are  later  than  the  Conquest,  the  other  specimens  are  of  a  period 
not  far  distant. 

In  a  collection  of  Peruvian  pottery  in  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  which  we 
have  not  had  opportunity  to  examine,  but  of  specimens  of  which  we  have 
photographs,  is  a  bottle  or  vase  in  the  shape  of  a  head.  Whatever  be  its 
period,  it  is  a  wonderful  specimen,  worthy  the  hands  of  any  sculptor.  It 
is  a  noble  and  perfect  work,  with  the  expression  and  the  very  smile  of 


290.  Ewer :    Central  American  pot- 
tery.    (T.-P.  Coll.) 


394: 


rOTTEUY   AM)    POIU'ELAIX  IX  AMERICA. 


life.     Every  feature  is  admirably  modelled.     But  the  head  is  that  of  a 
negro.     The  flat  nose,  the  thick  lips,  the  whole  face,  the  very  smile  and 

expression,  are  the  type  of  the  African,  and 
it  is  probably  a  portrait.  If  this  be  so,  the 
vase  is,  of  course,  later  than  the  Conquest. 
If  the  model  of  whose  head  this  is  a  por- 
trait was  an  Indian,  he  must  have  been  one 
of  those  who  are  so  numerous  on  the  Isth- 
mus, in  whose  features  the  African  type 
has  become  superior  from  the  admixture  of 
African  blood  ;  which  we  know,  as  an  his- 
torical fact,  occurred  extensively  about  a 
century  ago,  when  large  numbers  of  negroes 
went  from  Cuba  to  Honduras  and  united 
with  the  Indians.  In  that  case  the  vast'  is 
quite  modern. 

Among  a  number  of  pottery  figures  which 
came  into  our  possession  as  a  collection  of 
ancient  Mexican  work,  one  has  the  inscrip- 
tion Califormia,  on  the  front  of  the  pedestal. 
This  is,  of  course,  comparatively  modern. 
If  our  ewers  were  made  since  the  discovery  of  America,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  many  other  objects  in  our  own  and  in  other  collections  are  of 
date  not  far  distant  from  them.  The 
relationship,  in  style  and  general  char- 
acter, is  plain. 

Mr.  Ewbank  ("Life  in  Brazil," 
1850)  gives  a  series  of  illustrations  of 
ancient  Peruvian  pottery  from  a  col- 
lection formed  by  General  Alvarez, 
commandant  of  the  province  of  Cuzco, 
which  passed  into  the  hands  of  Senhor 
Barboza,  of  Rio  Janeiro.  We  have  re- 
produced sonic  of  these  illustrations 
(111.293).  Mr.  Ewbank  devotes  an  ex- 
tended notice  to  the  bottle,  which  is  in 
the  form  of  a  human  head  with  long 
curls.  This,  he  says,  " represents  the 
head  of  the  famous  cazique  Rumin- 
hauy."     The  portrait  seems  to  be  identified,  even  to  a  scar  on  the  check. 


291.  Peruvian.  Bottle :  Coast  pottery. 


292.  Peruvian  Const  Pottery. 


ANCIENT  AMERICAN  rOTTERY. 


395 


Ruminhauy,  or  Rumminaui,  was  a  celebrated  chieftain  at  the  time  of  the 
conquest  of  Peru,  mentioned  by  De  la  Vega.  He  schemed  to  succeed 
Atalmalpa,  and,  after  fighting  with  the  Spaniards,  and  accomplishing  vari- 
ous barbaric  murders,  was  overcome,  and  driven  into  the  mountains. 


293.  Peruvian  Vases.     (From  the  collection  of  General  Alvarez.     Ewbank.) 

The  vase  before  referred  to,  from  Cuzco  (111.  289),  is  another  portrait 
of  the  same  person,  with  the  same  scar  on  the  cheek.  If  these  vases  be  in- 
deed portraits  of  a  man  who  lived  in  1582,  it  is  greatly  to  be  lamented 
that  we  have  no  information  of  the 
places  and  attending  circumstances 
of  their  discovery.  These  are  typi- 
cal heads,  many  which  closely  resem- 
ble them  being  found  among  Peru- 
vian potteries.  We  have  quite  sim- 
ilar heads  in  our  own  collection. 
They  resemble  a  large  class  of  pot- 
tery, and  the  character  of  the  tombs 
in  which  these  were  found  might 
serve  to  date  other  specimens  found 
in  other  tombs  with  similar  accom- 
paniments. 

Mr.  Squier  (to  whose  work  we  are 
indebted  for  many  of  the  illustrations  of  Peruvian  pottery  here  given) 
describes  the  contents  of  some  Peruvian  tombs  in  which  pottery  Mas 
found  ("Peru,"  etc,  by  E.  G.  Squier,  1877,  pages  73-81).  The  perfect 
preservation  of  the  large  variety  of  perishable  objects  in  such  a  tomb  at 
Pachaeaniac,  the  cloths  and  blankets  the  patterns  of  which  are  given,  the 
nndecayed  condition  of  the  wrappings  of  the  bodies,  the  household  uten- 
sils and  articles  of  personal  use  and  adornment,  made  of  perishable  mate- 
rials, but  found  in  good  condition,  would  be  wonderful  in  any  other  coun- 
try than  Egypt,  if  four  hundred  years  had  elapsed  since  the  burial.     With- 


294.  Peruvian  Toast  Pottery. 


396 


rOTTKIlY  AND   PORCELAIN  IN  AMERICA. 


out  information  as  to  the  peculiarities  of  the  .climate  of  Pern,  we  cannot 
form  an  opinion  as  to  the  probable  duration  of  cloths  in  colored  pat- 
terns, and  other  articles  found  in  such  tombs.  But 
all  the  facts  which  we  at  present  possess  fail  to 
give  any  evidence  of  extreme  age  for  any  of  the 
Peruvian  potteries.  On  the  contrary,  the  indica- 
tions are  opposed  to  theories  of  great  antiquity, 
and  rather  lead  to  the  belief  that  the  period  of 
the  best  Peruvian  art  was  not  long  before  or  after 
the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century.     This  idea 


'29.3.  Nicaragua  Pottery. 


is  safe,  and  sustained  by  what  few  facts  we  pos- 
sess. It  will  be  ample  time  to  adopt  ideas  of  great 
antiquity  when  facts  are  known  to  justify  them. 

The  forms  of  Peruvian  pottery  are  many.  Double  jugs  are  common, 
and.  jugs  with  two  spouts,  the  latter  form  being  regarded  as  characteristic 
of  the  potteries  found  on  the  coast,  which  are  often  quite  different  in  style 
from  those  found  in  the  interior.  Birds,  fish,  animals,  fruit,  vegetables, 
shells,  were  all  used  as  forms  of  vases.  The  entire  human  form  was  never 
well  modelled,  while  heads  and  busts  were  often  excellent.  The  vase 
(111.  287)  found  in  one  of  the  largest  pyramidal  mounds  in  Peru,  near 
Santa,  affords  an  illustration  of  the  expressive  style  of  countenance  which 
Peruvian  sculptors  were  able  to  produce. 

In  the  Trumbull-Prime  collection  is  an  interesting  vase,  discovered  on 

the  isthmus  of  Tehuantepec  by  an  ex- 
ploring party  of  railway  engineers  (111. 
296).  It  is  of  red  unglazed  pottery,  the 
surface  giving  indications  of  a  polish 
which  resembles  that  of  the  Egyptian 
red  wares,  and  approximating  to  the  ha- 
tred surfaces  of  Greek  vases.  It  former- 
ly stood  on  high  feet.  Its  present  height 
is  12  inches,  and  greatest  diameter  1" 
inches.  The  decorations  are  relief  masks 
and  figures,  rudely  but  expressively  ex- 
ecuted. The  important  feature  of  this 
specimen  is  a  peculiar  stamp  impressed 
in  four  fac-similes,  on  raised  lumps  or 
bosses,  on  four  sides  of  the  vase.  This 
stamp  (111.  2!>7)  is  evidently  intended  to  express  ideas  by  signs,  and  is  one 
of  the  very  rare  examples  of  early  American  language  in  visible  characters. 


296.  Vase  from  Tehuantepec,  with  inscrip- 
tions in  circles.     (T.-P.  Coll.) 


ANCIENT  AMERICAN  POTTERY. 


397 


Similar  signs  have  been  supposed  to  express  dates.  On  a  vase  in  the 
Smithsonian  Institution,  at  Washington,  a  similar  mark  occurs,  also  im- 
pressed as  on  our  specimen,  and  very  closely  resembling  the  one-half  of 


20*7.  Stamped  Inscription  (exact  size)  on  Tehuantepec  Vase.     (T.-P.  Coll.) 

this  device,  many  of  fie  signs  being  identical.     The  size  is  precisely  the 

same.     But  on  the  Smithsonian  vase  only  one-half  of  the  circular  stamp 

appears  (111.  298).     Certain  signs  are  missing  which  are  on  our  specimen, 

and  the  number  of  circles  at  the  right  is  not   the 

same.     The  impression  is  better  on  the  Smithsonian 

specimen,  and  enables  us  to  complete  forms  of  signs 

which  are  imperfect  on  the  Trumbull -Prime  vase. 

These  marks  have  been  the  subject  of  careful  study 

by  learned  gentlemen,  but  as  yet  they  have  not  been 

satisfactorily  translated.     On  a  pottery  image  from 

Cuzco  (111.  289),  and  on  a  figure  (111.  2S1)  will   be 

seen  some  marks  of  character  similar  to  these. 

In  our  collection  we  have  preserved,  out  of  in- 
numerable specimens  of  Peruvian,  Central  American,    [ 
and  Mexican  potteries  which  have  been  brought  to   p 
New  York,  only  such  objects  as  seemed  illustrative   L 
of  the  history  of  the  art  in  America,  and  positive  aids  ^SSH^SS!' 
in  endeavoring  to  determine  age.     While  there  are 
distinctions  in  the  forms  of  the  raised  decorations,  which  characterize  dif- 


398  VOTTERY  AND    PORCELAIN   IX  AMERICA. 

ferent  localities,  the  art  is  one,  in  all  eases,  from  Peru,  in  the  south,  to  Mis- 
souri, in  the  north.  The  same  pottery,  the  same  forms,  the  same  color 
decorations,  the  identical  patterns  of  colored  ornamentation,  are  found  in 
Peru  and  in  the  mounds  recently  opened  in  Missouri.  A  peculiar  style 
of  relief  work  in  prominent  sharp  points,  sharp  features  of  human  faces, 
sharp  projecting  noses,  sharp  flanges  on  head-dresses — in  short,  what  we 
may  call  high  sharp-pointed  relief — appears  characteristic  of  some. Mexican 
work. 

In  Missouri,  considerable  quantities  of  pottery  have  been  found  in 
burial-mounds,  showing  two  classes,  the  one  the  ordinary  local  ware,  re- 
sembling that  of  New  England  and  of  many  savage  tribes ;  the  other  ap- 
parently imported  from  regions  to  the  south-west;  or,  if  made  where 
found,  made  in  paste  and  decoration  like  the  potteries  of  Mexico,  Central 
America,  and  Peru.  Some  specimens,  at  least,  seem  to  have  been  im- 
ported, and  exhibit  a  commercial  intercourse  in  former  years. 

Still  farther  westward,  in  Arizona,  potteries  have  been  found  of  two 
classes  —  the  one  allied  to  those  of  the  southern  countries,  the  other  to 
those  of  Alaska. 

The  potteries  of  Alaska  are  of  a  better  quality  in  paste  and  baking 
than  any  others  on  the  American  continent.  Some  of  these  are  in  large 
vases,  the  paste  compact  and  firm,  covered  with  a  grayish- white  wash, 
which  is  polished,  much  in  the  style  of  many  of  the  Phenician  wares, 
on  which  bold  devices  in  black  and  dark  red  are  painted  in  firm,  accurate 
lines. 

In  the  mounds  of  Ohio  some  interesting  specimens  have  been  found, 
showing  rude  decoration  in  incised  'work  (Ills.  279,  280). 

The  potteries  of  the  Atlantic  coast  have  little  artistic  interest.  They 
are  of  the  simplest  forms,  and  such  as  savages  often  produce.  In  New 
England,  perfect  specimens  are  exceedingly  rare.  Fragments  found  in 
various  localities  indicate  the  bowl  as  the  most  common  form.  In  the 
pastes  of  the  Connecticut  valley  we  find  mica  often  mingled  with  the  clay, 
as  in  the  Celtic  wares  of  Ireland  and  in  the  black  wares  of  Etruria,  possi- 
bly tor  the  brilliant  effect  produced  by  the  particles  which  remain  bright, 
as  the  heat  of  the  baking  was  not  great ;  possibly  only  because  the  clay 
from  which  they  were  made  was  micaceous. 


POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN  IN  THE    UNITED  STATES.  899 


II -POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

After  the  settlement  of  America  by  Europeans,  coarse  pottery  was  made 
in  various  parts  of  the  country,  but  no  artistic  work  was  attempted.  Our 
ancestors  used  pewter  and  wooden  dishes.  Pottery  was  not  common  in 
American  houses  until  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  few  of 
the  people  of  Revolutionary  times  had  seen  porcelain.  Tea  was  not  used 
in  Europe  until  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  was  not- 
known  in  America  prior  to  1710.  Teapots  and  tea-services  were  not 
made  in  Europe  until  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century.  It  has 
been  questioned  whether  the  porcelain  teapot  is  a  Chinese  or  a  European 
invention.  When  Delft  pottery  began  to  be  used  for  table  and  house- 
hold purposes  in  England,  it  is  probable  that  small  quantities  found  their 
way  to  this  country,  but  neither  crockery  nor  porcelain  took  the  place  of 
pewter  and  wood  on  American  tables,  and  the  importations  increased  but 
slowly  with  the  increase  of  population  and  wealth.  Wooden  trenchers, 
pewter  dishes,  mugs,  water-pitchers,  etc.,  continued  in  general  use  until  the 
present  century. 

By  an  examination  of  early  newspapers,  we  are  enabled  to  learn  much 
of  the  character  of  the  table  furniture  which  dealers  advertised  for  sale, 
and  this  was  probably  alike  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  We  find  pewter 
always  prominent.  In  the  New  Haven  Gazette  of  September  30th,  1784, 
a  druggist  advertises  Wedgwood  mortars  and  pestles.  In  the  same  paper, 
October  21st,  a  dealer  advertises  "  blue-and- white  stone- ware,  consisting  of 
butter-pots,  jars,  and  cans;"  also  "quart,  pint,  and  half-pint  water-flasks; 
matted  ditto;  spaw  ditto;  Bristol  ditto."  In  the  same  paper,  November 
25th,  a  dealer  advertises  "queen's- ware  in  small  crates,  well  assorted,'1 
which  had  been  imported  direct  to  New  Haven ;  and  December  2d,  he  ad- 
vertises "English  china  cups  and  saucers."  On  November  4th,  1784,  the 
same  dealer  advertised  "  a  large  assortment  of  coarse  stone-ware  in  crates, 
large  round  bottles  holding  near  two  quarts,  in  small  convenient  ham- 
pers, and  quart,  pint,  and  half-pint  flasks" — with  a  discount  to  those  who 
buy  large  quantities.  This  last  advertisement  may  refer  to  wares  made  in 
America.  In  1785,  we  find  advertised  "Nottingham,  queen's,  china,  and 
glass  ware."  "  Nottingham  ware  "  had  long  been  a  popular  name  in  Eng- 
land for  brown  potteries,  originally  made  at  Nottingham,  and  the  name 
continued  in  use  here  until  a  very  recent  date. 


400  POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN  IN  AMERICA. 

Bricks  and  ruder  forms  of  pottery  were  made  in  New  England  in  the 
eighteenth  and  possibly  in  the  seventeenth  century.  Josiah  Wedgwood, 
in  a  letter  written  1 765,  speaks  of  a  pottery  then  projected  in  the  Caro- 
linas,  of  whose  work  he  had  great  apprehensions ;  and  he  seems  to  desire 
some  government  interference  to  prevent  the  colonies  from  making  their 
own  pottery,  and  thus  injuring  the  home  business.  Before  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century  many  potteries  were  established  in  various  parts  of  the 
country,  but,  so  far  as  is  now  known,  no  articles  were  produced  except  the 
ordinary  coarser  kinds  of  household  utensils  in  stone-ware. 

"A  Brief  Examination  of  Lord  Sheffield's  Obstjrr<iti<mx  on  the  Com- 
merce of  the  United  States"  by  Matthew  Carey,  was  printed  in  succes- 
sive numbers  of  the  American  Ifuseum,  in  1791,  and  collected  in  a  vol- 
ume, published  the  same  year,  at  Philadelphia,  with  a  supplementary  note 
on  "the  present  state  of  American  manufactures,"  etc.  On  pages  126, 
127  are  the  following  observations: 

Manufactures  of  glass,  of  earthenware,  and  of  stone,  mixed  with  clay,  are  all  in 
an  infant  state.  From  the  quantity  and  variety  of  the  materials  which  must  have 
been  deposited  by  nature  in  so  extensive  a  region  as  the  United  States,  from  the 
abundance  of  fuel  which  they  contain,  from  the  expense  of  importation,  and  loss  by 
tincture,  which  falls  on  glass  and  earthenwares,  from  the  simplicity  of  many  of  these 
manufactures,  and  from  the  great  consumption  of  them,  impressions  of  surprise  at 
this  state  of  them,  and  a  firm  persuasion  that  they  will  receive  the  early  attention 
of  foreign  or  American  capitalists,  are  at  once  produced.  Coarse  tiles  and  bricks 
of  an  excellent  quality,  potter's  wares,  all  in  quantities  beyond  the  home  consump- 
tion, a  few  ordinary  vessels  and  utensils  of  stone  mixed  with  clay,  some  mustard 
and  snuff  bottles,  a  few  liasks  or  flagons,  a  small  quantity  of  sheet-glass  and  of  ves- 
sels for  family  use,  generally  of  the  inferior  kinds,  are  all  that  are  now  made. 

Hamilton's  return  of  Exports  of  the  United  States  from  August,  1789, 
to  September,  1790,  printed  in  the  Appendix  to  Carey's  book,  gives,  for 
earthen  and  glass  Mare,  nineteen  hundred  and  ninety  dollars. 

in  Miss  Caulkins's  "History  of  Norwnch,"  chap,  xlix.,  it  is  stated  that 
in  L796  "a  pottery  for  the  manufacture  of  stone-ware  was  established  at 
I  loan  Hill,  which  continued  in  operation  far  into  the  present  century,  sel- 
dom, however,  employing  more  than  four  or  five  hands."  In  Morse's 
v"  <  Gazetteer,"  1797,  we  read,  under  Norwich,  that  the  inhabitants  manufac- 
ture "stone  and  earthen  ware."  In  the  Norwich  (Conn.)  Gazette,  Septem- 
ber 15th,  1790,  we  find  this  advertisement  of  a  pottery,  which  appears  to 
have  been  in  operation  by  a  Mr.  Lathrop  prior  to  1790,  and  is,  without 
doubt,  the  one  referred  to  by  Miss  Caulkins  and  Dr.  Morse : 


POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN  IN  THE   UNITED  STATES.  401 

C.  Potts  tfc  Son  informs  the  Public,  that  they  have  lately  established  a  Manu- 
factory of  Earthenware  at  the  shop  formerly  improved  by  Mr.  Charles  Lathrop, 
where  all  kinds  of  said  Ware  is  made  and  sold,  either  in  large  or  small  quantities, 
and  warranted  good. 

A  memorial  of  Samuel  Dennis,  dated  New  Haven,  October  9th,  1789, 
to  the  General  Assembly  of  Connecticut,  shows :  "  That  he  is  acquainted 
with  the  potter's  business,  and  is  about  to  erect  a  stone  pottery ;  and  there 
is  in  this  country  a  plenty  of  clay  which  he  presumes  of  the  same  kind 
with  that  from  which  the  queenVware  of  Staffordshire  is  usually  made ; 
and  that  he  wishes  to  erect  a  pottery  for  the  purpose  of  manufacturing 
the  finer  kinds  of  ware  usually  made  in  Staffordshire,  particularly  the 
queenVware,"  and  he  asks  the  aid  of  the  State  in  founding  the  works. 
His  memorial  was  negatived,  and  it  does  not  appear  whether  he  went  on 
with  his  project. 

Isaac  Hanford,  of  Hartford,  Connecticut,  took  out  a  patent,  January 
20th,  1800,  for  a  new  method  of  making  bricks,  tiles,  and  pottery  ware  in 
general,  and  of  discharging  the  moulds.  Nothing  further  is  known  of  his 
work  ;  but  coarse  pottery  has,  from  the  beginning  of  the  century,  been 
made  in  Hartford.  Prior  to  1800,  a  pottery  was  in  existence  at  Stoning- 
ton,  Connecticut,  managed  by  Adam  States,  who  was  succeeded  in  the 
business,  after  1804,  by  his  sons,  Adam  and  Joseph.  They  made  jugs, 
butter-pots,  jars  of  all  sizes,  and  some  small  wares  with  handles,  uniformly 
of  soft  pottery,  usually  gray  in  color,  with  salt  glaze.  Contemporary  with 
this  was  a  pottery  at  Norwalk,  Connecticut,  which  made  red  wares  of  soft 
pottery  in  many  forms.  We  learn  from  a  lady,  whose  memory  extends 
back  to  1804,  that  it  made  jars  and  pots  of  all  sizes,  teapots,  mugs,  and 
large  milk-pans,  then  in  common  use  among  the  farmers  in  Connecticut. 
A  specimen  in  our  collection  is  glazed  with  a  lead  glaze,  the  color  deep 
red,  with  flashes  of  black,  probably  caused  by  smoke  in  the  tiring.  Other 
potteries  produced  wares  similar  to  the  Stonington  and  Norwalk. 

From  a  report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  (Mr.  Gallatin),  made 
in  1810,  it  appears  that  the  exports  of  "coarse  earthenware"  exceeded  the 
imports.  In  this  report  the  Secretary  says  that  progress  has  been  made 
in  the  manufacture  of  "queen's  and  other  earthenware,"  and  that  "a  suf- 
ficient quantity  of  the  coarser  species  of  pottery  was  made  everywhere. 
Four  manufactories  of  a  finer  kind  had  lately  been  established,  which 
made  ware  resembling  that  of  Staffordshire."  Dr.  Dwight,  in  his  travels 
(1822),  after  quoting  the  above,  states  that  lie  had  gained  access  to  the  Re- 
ports from  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  upon  which  the  Secretary's 
Report  had  been  founded,  and  gives  among  the  manufactures  of  Connec- 

26 


4:02  POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN  IN  AMERICA. 

ticut  for  the  year,  "potteries,  twelve;"  ''value  of  earthen  and  stone  ware, 
$30,740;"  and  for  Massachusetts,  "  earthenware,  $18,700." 

Before  the  end  of  the  last  century,  direct  trade  had  been  established 
between  the  United  States  and  China,  and  Oriental  porcelain  began  to 
make  its  appearance  in  America.  The  English  trade  increased  rapidly  in 
the  early  part  of  the  present  century,  and  English  manufacturers  had  be- 
gun to  decorate  pottery  with  American  subjects  for  the  American  market. 
Porcelain  seems  to  have  been  decorated  at  Lowestoft  with  American  de- 
signs, for  special  orders,  before  1800. 

It  does  not  appear  that  any  attempt  has  hitherto  been  made  to  manu- 
facture pottery  of  the  higher  classes.  The  "  queen's-ware  "  referred  to  v\ 
the  Report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  in  1810,  if  made  at  all,  was 
probably  not  the  ware  known  by  this  name  in  England.  We  find,  by  in- 
quiry from  elderly  persons  now  living,  that  they  understood  queen's-ware 
to  be  a  heavy,  white  pottery,  which  was  used  for  baking  and  similar  pur- 
poses. 

A  paragraph  in  the  Edinburgh  Weekly  Magazine,  in  January,  1771, 
says :  "  By  a  letter  from  Philadelphia  we  are  informed  that  a  large  china 
manufactory  is  established  there,  and  that  better  china  cups  and  saucers 
are  made  than  at  Bow  or  Stratford." 

We  are  indebted  to  a  gentleman  of  Philadelphia  for  the  following  in- 
formation concerning  this  manufacture : 

"China  works"  were  established  in  Philadelphia,  and  in  operation,  in  1 770.  I 
•discovered  this  fact  about  two  years  since  while  examining  some  old  papers,  which 
led  me  to  examine  the  newspapers  of  the  day,  and  there  I  found  an  advertisement 
under  date  December  29th,  1 769,  headed  "  New  China  Ware."  It  states  that  "  Not- 
withstanding the  various  difficulties  and  disadvantages  which  usually  attend  the  in- 
troduction of  any  important  manufacture  into  a  new  country,  the  proprietors  of  the 
China  Works  now  erecting  in  Southwark  have  the  pleasure  to  acquaint  the  public 
they  have  proved  to  a  certainty  that  the  clays  of  America  arc  productive  of  as 
good  Porcelain  as  any  heretofore  manufactured  at  the  famous  factory  in  Low, 
'near  London,"  etc.,  etc.  Subsequently  there  is  an  advertisement  for  "shank  bones" 
delivered  at  the  China  factory  in  Southwark,  signed  G.  Bonnin  and  G.  A.  Morris. 
Then,  in  April,  1 772,  there  is  an  advertisement  for"several  apprentices  t<>  the  paint- 
ing branch,"  etc.  In  addition  to  the  fact  of  the  existence  of  the  manufacture,  I 
have  found  also  some  few  undoubted  specimens  of  the  work,  which  are  now  depos- 
ited at  the  Franklin  Institute  on  exhibition. 

Another  porcelain  factory  was  established  in  Philadelphia  at  a  later 
period,  as  appears  from  the  following  Extract  from  tin  proceedings  of  the 
"Historical  Society  of  Permsyl/oania"  at  their  rooms,  May,  1S6S. 


POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN  IN  THE    UNITED  STATES.  403 

Miss  Peters  presented  a  beautiful  pitcher,  made  at  the  porcelain  establishment 
of  Messrs.  Tucker  &  Hemphill — a  very  creditable  specimen  of  American  manufac- 
ture. At  the  request  of  the  society,  Thomas  Tucker,  Esq.,  prepared  the  following 
paper  on  the  manufacture  of  porcelain  in  the  United  States,  which  was  read  by  the 
secretary,  and  ordered  to  be  published  (in  the  papers  of  the  day). 

Philadelphia,  May  13th,  1SGS. 
To  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania : 

Gentlemen, — Herewith  please  find  a  small  account  of  the  manufacture  of  porcelain  in  the 
United  States. 

William  Ellis  Tucker,  my  brother,  was  the  first  to  make  porcelain  in  the  United  States.  My 
father,  Benjamin  Tucker,  had  a  china  store  in  Market  Street,  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  in  the  year 
1816.  He  built  a  kiln  for  William  in  the  yard  back  of  the  store,  where  he  painted  in  the  white 
china,  and  burned  it  on  in  the  kiln,  which  gave  him  a  taste  for  that  kind  of  work.  After  that  he 
commenced  experimenting  with  the  different  kinds  of  clays,  to  see  if  he  could  not  make  the  ware. 
He  succeeded  in  making  a  very  good  opaque  ware,  called  queen's-warc.  He  then  commenced  ex- 
perimenting with  felspar  and  kaolin  to  make  porcelain,  and,  after  much  labor,  he  succeeded  in 
making  a  few  small  articles  of  very  good  porcelain.  He  then  obtained  the  old  water-works  at  the 
north-west  corner  of  Schuylkill,  Front,  and  Chestnut,  where  he  erected  a  large  glazing  kiln,  enam- 
elling kiln,  mills,  etc.  He  burned  kiln  after  kiln  with  very  poor  success.  The  glazing  would 
crack,  and  the  body  would  blister ;  and,  besides,  we  discovered  that  we  had  a  man  who  placed  the 
ware  in  the  kiln  who  was  employed  by  some  interested  parties  in  England  to  impede  our  success. 

Most  of  the  handles  were  found  in  the  bottom  of  the  seggars  after  the  kiln  was  burned.  We 
could  not  account  for  it,  until  a  deaf  and  dumb  man  in  our  employment  detected  him  running  his 
knife  around  each  handle  as  he  placed  them  in  the  kiln. 

At  another  time,  every  piece  of  china  had  to  be  broken  before  it  could  be  taken  out  of  the  seg- 
gar.  We  always  washed  the  round  O's,  the  article  in  which  the  china  was  placed  in  the  kiln,  with 
silex ;  but  this  man  had  washed  them  with  felspar,  which  of  course  melted,  and  fastened  every  arti- 
cle to  the  bottom.     But  William  discharged  him,  and  we  got  over  that  difficulty. 

In  the  year  1827,  my  brother  received  a  silver  medal  from  the  Franklin  Institute  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  in  1831  received  one  from  the  Institute  in  New  York.  In  1828, 1  commenced  to  Jearn 
the  different  branches  of  the  business. 

On  the  22d  of  August,  1832,  my  brother  William  died.  Some  time  before,  he  connected  him- 
self with  the  late  Judge  Hemphill.  They  purchased  the  property  at  the  south-west  corner  of 
Schuylkill,  Sixth,  and  Chestnut  streets,  where  they  built  a  large  storehouse  and  factory,  which  they 
filled  with  porcelain.  After  the  death  of  my  brother,  Judge  Hemphill  and  myself  continued  the 
working  of  porcelain  for  some  years,  until  he  sold  out  his  interest  to  a  company  of  Eastern  gentle- 
men ;  but  being  unfortunate  in  their  other  operations,  they  were  not  able  to  give  the  porcelain  at- 
tention. In  the  year  1837  I  undertook  to  carry  it  on  alone,  and  did  so  for  about  one  year,  making 
a  large  quantity  of  very  fine  porcelain,  many  pieces  of  which  I  still  have.  The  gilding  and  paint- 
ing is  now  as  perfect  as  when  first  done. 

I  herewith  present  you  with  a  pitcher  which  I  made  thirty-one  years  ago.  You  will  notice  the 
glazing  and  transparency  of  this  specimen  as  equal  to  the  best  imported  china;  but  the  gilding, 
having  been  in  use  so  many  years,  is  somewhat  injured.  I  would  like  to  give  you  a  larger  article, 
but  I  have  but  few  pieces  left.     Very  respectfully  yours,  etc.,  Thomas  Tucker. 

"We  have  specimens  of  the  Philadelphia  ware  of  Tucker  &  Hemphill 
which  are  of  excellent  porcelain,  but  the  decoration  indicates  want  of  ex- 
perience. 


404  POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN  IN  AMERICA. 

In  L 847,  a  factory  was  established  in  Bennington,  Yerm on t, by  Messrs. 
Lyman  &  Fen  ton,  and  continued  in  operation  till  about  1860.  Pottery 
was  made  in  various  forms,  with  good  enamel  ;  bisque  or  Parian  wares 
were  produced,  and  soft-paste  porcelain  of  good  quality,  well  decorated. 
So  far  as  is  at  present  known,  this  was  the  first  American  factory  which 
has  attempted  to  make  figures  of  men  and  animals.  We  have  a  pair  of 
lions  in  pottery,  with  tortoise-shell  enamels,  an  eagle  and  child  in  white 
bisque,  and  other  figurines.  A  peculiar  enamel  seems  to  have  been  pat- 
ented by  Mr.  Fenton  of  this  firm,  which  was  used  on  some  of  the  pot- 
tery.  The  impressed  mark  on  pottery  of  this  class  was  arranged  in  a  cir- 
cle, "  Lyman,  Fenton,  &  Co.,  Fenton's  Enamel,  patented.  1849,  Benning- 
ton, Vt." 

Some  time  prior  to  1829  a  factory  was  established  in  Jersey  City,  New 
Jersey,  by  persons  not  now  known  (said  to  be  French),  which  made  hard- 
paste  porcelain.  No  mark  was  used.  AVe  have  specimens  of  this  ware, 
which  is  of  fair  quality — pure  paste,  white  with  gilded  rims,  without  color 
decoration.  The  enterprise  was  not  successful,  and  in  1S29  David  Hen- 
derson &  Co.  bought  the  works,  and  carried  them  on  under  the  name  of 
the  American  Pottery  Company.  They  made  white  and  brown  potteries, 
decorating  the  former  with  prints,  and  the  latter  with  colored  enamels  and 
raised  work;  and  also  a  translucent  pottery,  which  is  apparently  a  natural 
soft-paste  porcelain.  Their  mark  was  "  American  Pottery  Co.,  Jersey 
City,  N.  J.,1'  in  a  circle,  stamped  in  the  paste.  They  executed  work  for 
druggists  and  other  dealers  in  New  York,  printing  labels  on  their  jars, 
boxes,  etc.  A  favorite  pattern  was  a  brown  pottery  pitcher,  the  handle  a 
hound,  the  surface  covered  with  a  raised  representation  of  a  hunt.  It  was 
made  in  various  sizes,  and  is  still  produced,  with  a  changed  form  of  the 
same  decoration.  In  1855,  Messrs.  Rouse  &  Turner  became  proprietors 
of  the  factory,  and  have  since  carried  it  on  with  much  success,  producing 
granite,  Rockingham,  and  stone  wares,  plain  and  decorated,  for  table  and 
general  use.  They  use  clay  obtained  from  Woodbridge,  New  Jersey,  and 
another  clay  from  South  Carolina;  and  occasionally  a  clay  from  Glen  Cove, 
Long  Island,  which  contains  silex.     They  use  no  mark  on  their  fabrics. 

Important  works  are  now  in  operation  at  Baltimore,  Maryland,  and  at 
Trenton,  New  -Jersey,  making  varieties  of  pottery,  plain  and  decorated,  and 
stone-wares  of  good  quality. 

A  porcelain  factory  has  been  established  at  Long  Island  City,  opposite 
New  York,  by  T.C.Smith  &  Sons,  which  is  in  successful  operation,  mak- 
ing excellent  commercial  work  of  various  kinds  and  styles.  The  kaolin 
in  u.^e  here  is  imported. 


POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN  IN  THE    UNITED  STATES.  405 

This  sketch  of  the  history  of  ceramic  art  in  America  is  necessarily  im- 
perfect, and  subject  to  correction  when  more  full  information  can  be  ob- 
tained. It  is,  however,  manifest  that  hitherto  America  has  been  content 
to  depend  on  Europe,  China,  and  Japan  for  her  supplies  of  beautiful  pot- 
tery and  porcelain.  Within  the  past  two  years  an  increased  demand  has 
been  visible  for  the  higher  qualities  of  decorated  porcelain.  To  meet  this 
demand,  some  of  the  New  York  merchants  have  employed  foreign  artists 
to  decorate  wares  here,  and  admirable  work  has  been  produced.  White 
hard-paste  porcelains  are  now  imported  from  Continental  factories  of  Eu- 
rope, and  painted  in  New  York,  chiefly  in  the  styles  of  the  decorators  of 
Berlin,  Limoges,  and  other  foreign  factories.  No  attempt  at  original  pat- 
terns has  been  made,  nor  is  it  probable  that  purchasers  are  always  aware 
that  they  are  buying  porcelains  decorated  in  America.  Ground-colors,  es- 
pecially shades  of  claret  and  of  green,  are  executed  with  quite  as  perfect 
evenness  and  beauty  of  tint  as  the  best  commercial  works  of  Europe. 

Occasionally  are  seen  in  the  shops  modern  Sevres  porcelains,  with  the 
cut  mark,  which  have  been  decorated  in  New  York  by  persons  of  some 
skill,  and  hard -paste  cups  and  saucers  of  Limoges  ware,  prettily  orna- 
mented with  portraits  and  other  designs.  These  are  the  work  of  indus- 
trious women  and  others,  and  are  to  be  noted  as  among  the  first  efforts  in 
America  in  decorative  ceramic  art.  As  such,  they  deserve  hearty  encour- 
agement. We  have  also  met  with  very  good  faience  decoration,  executed 
here  for  sale  by  various  individuals. 

The  exhibitions  of  the  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art  have  exerted  a 
manifest  influence  in  elevating  the  taste  of  the  people  in  domestic  crock- 
ery and  china,  and  this  influence  is  felt  in  the  increase  of  the  importation 
of  really  artistic  wares.  The  general  subject  of  ceramic  art  is  attracting 
more  and  more  attention.  Private  collections  are  increasing  in  number. 
Public  exhibitions  in  various  cities  and  towns  have  shown  the  wealth  of 
beauty  which  rests  in  old  pantries,  and  revealed  to  many,  what  they  had 
regarded  as  an  inexplicable  mystery,  the  fascination  of  beautiful  pottery. 

The  money  value  of  art  is  beginning  to  be  recognized.  The  utility  of 
beauty,  as  a  commercial  article,  an  object  of  industry,  a  means  of  employ- 
ing labor,  will  soon  lie  more  appreciated.  Then,  let  us  hope,  our  laws  will 
cease  to  prevent  the  American,  as  they  now  do,  from  competing  with  the 
European  in  purchasing  the  priceless  examples  of  old  art  industries,  and 
museums  in  every  city  and  village  will  grow  up,  to  teach  the  artisan  and 
his  family,  first,  the  pecuniary  value  of  making  useful  things  beautiful, 
and  next,  the  civilizing,  refining,  and  elevating  influences  of  beauty  in  all 
things. 


4»>0  rOTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN  IN  AMERICA. 


III.-COLLECTORS  AND   COLLECTING  IN  AMERICA. 

Having  thus  far  endeavored  to  furnish  such  a  condensed  account  of 
the  history  of  ceramic  art  as  may  serve  him  for  reference,  and  introduce 
him  to  the  study,  I  propose,  in  this  concluding  section,  a  free  talk  with 
my  reader,  without  order  or  method,  on  the  general  subject,  and  matters 
related  to  it. 

If  he  has  but  turned  over  the  pages  of  this  volume,  without  attempt- 
ing to  master  the  details  of  the  long  history  of  this,  the  oldest  and  most 
widely  extended  of  human  arts,  he  cannot  fail  to  have  been  impressed 
with  this  fact  at  least,  that  the  fabrication  and  ornamenting  of  baked  clay 
is  one  of  the  most  important  of  the  industrial  arts  practised  among  men. 
If  he  had  formerly  wondered  at  the  enthusiasm  with  which  collectors 
have  gathered  specimens  of  this  art,  he  may  now  be  able  to  appreciate  in 
some  sort  the  fact  that  the  objects  in  their  collections  are  not  mere  curios- 
ities, but  are  examples  of  human  industry,  and  illustrations  of  artistic  skill 
in  various  times  and  countries;  that  the  finger -marks  of  the  Phenician 
potter  on  a  vase  are  as  legible  records  of  Phenician  thought  as  inscriptions 
on  stone ;  that  the  enamel  on  an  Egyptian  bowl  is  the  recorded  evidence 
of  an  ancient  inventive  mind;  that  the  paintings  on  French,  German,  and 
English  porcelain  are  beautiful  ideas,  and  sometimes  ideas  which  are  char- 
acteristic of  great  branches  of  the  human  family. 

The  collecting  of  specimens  of  ceramic  art  has  been  the  enjoyment 
and  profit  of  the  most  accomplished  men  and  women  in  ancient  and  mod- 
ern times.  The  Greeks,  in  the  days  of  their  art  glory,  valued  pottery ;  sur- 
rounded themselves  with  the  best  specimens,  ancient  and  modern ;  knew 
no  greater  treasures  with  which  to  reward  victors  in  the  games ;  so  thor- 
oughly  loved  their  noble  vases,  that,  when  they  died  and  were  buried,  sur- 
viving friends  found  pleasant  solace  for  grief  in  placing  these  cherished 
works  of  art  in  the  tombs  of  the  dead  lovers  of  art,  thereby  to  make  the 
grave  seem  less  lonesome. 

When  the  Romans  found  in  the  Greek  graves  at  Corinth  the  fine  old 
vases  of  the  previous  centuries,  they  admired  the  marvellous  relics  of 
an  art  not  then  long  lost,  but  apparently  forgotten,  and  began  to  gather 
Greek  pottery  as  the  illustration  of  old  skill  and  artistic  ability. 

The  modern  collector  finds  himself  in  excellent  company.  Men  and 
women  of  note,  poets,  artists,  authors,  statesmen,  soldiers,  kings  and  queens, 


COLLECTORS  AND   COLLECTING  IN  AMERICA.  407 

are  among  the  known  collectors  of  the  present  and  the  last  century. 
Royalty  elbows  Republicanism  in  a  bric-a-brac  shop,  seeking  old  china. 
I  have  seen  an  American  lady  purchase  a  rarely  fine  specimen  of  Dresden, 
and  five  minutes  later,  a  grand  duke,  a  renowned  soldier,  trying  to  induce 
her  to  yield  the  purchase  to  him.  A  greater  man — Mr.  Gladstone — has, 
by  his  judicious  collections  in  ceramic  art  and  his  thorough  appreciation 
of  the  subject,  been  of  marked  service  to  the  industries  of  England.  The 
Duke  of  Wellington  appears  in  the  list  of  English  collectors  as  an  admirer 
of  Sevres  and  Dresden.  Lord  Nelson  was  celebrated  as  a  lover  of  fine 
porcelain,  and  factories  are  proud  to  place  on  record  his  visits  and  pur- 
chases. Eight  members  of  the  Rothschild  family  have  collections,  some 
of  which  are  among  the  finest  in  the  world.  The  Queen  of  Holland  pre- 
serves the  works  of  the  old  factories  of  her  country.  The  Queen  of  Eng- 
land, heads  the  list  of  English  collectors  in  all  departments  of  ceramic 
art,  and.  her  personal  loans  to  the  public  exhibitions  of  England  are  of  no 
small  importance.  Mr.  Marryat  catalogues  nearly  three  hundred  private 
collections  of  pottery  and  porcelain  in  Europe,  and  doubtless  omits  many 
thousand,  which  are  not  known  to  the  public. 

The  "idea"  of  a  collection  of  ceramic  art  is  just  wThat  suits  the  fancy 
of  the  collector.  Whatever  be  his  idea,  a  collection  cannot  fail  to  be  of 
some  service  to  him,  and  to  those  who  inspect  it.  It  is  only  in  great  pub- 
lic museums  that  the  art  in  all  its  departments  can  be  properly  illustrated. 
But  the  private  collector  need  not  be  deterred  by  the  apparent  magnitude 
of  the  field  on  which  he  enters.  He  may  cultivate  small  tracts,  and  reap 
rich  harvests,  harvests  which  will  be  stores  of  food  and  refreshment. 

Knowledge  and  educated  taste  in  pottery  and  porcelain  are  of  the 
highest  domestic  importance.  If  one  does  not  desire  to  study  the  history 
of  ceramic  art,  and  make  a  collection  of  beautiful  specimens,  he  or  she 
may  at  least  learn  to  adorn  home  life  and  the  home  table.  The  log-cabin, 
in  the  northern  mountains,  in  which  this  concluding  section  is  written, 
furnished  simply  as  a  fishing-lodge  on  the  bank  of  Lonesome  Lake,  shines 
like  a  palace  in  the  light  of  the  blazing  logs  on  the  hearth,  with  the  glow 
of  an  old  pottery  dinner  service  arranged  on  the  shelves.  Its  decoration 
is  one  of  those  strange  patterns  of  mingled  print  and  painting  which  such 
English  manufacturers  as  Minton  and  Miles  Mason  and  others  produced  in 
the  early  part  of  the  century,  on  which  they  lavished  color,  and  thus  ob- 
tained the  finest  results  of  their  art.  For  a  grand  beauty  of  pottery  and 
porcelain  is  color.  It  makes  comparatively  little  difference  how  it  is  put 
on,  if  the  color  be  pure  and  rich,  and  then  it  shines  as  on  no  other  work 
of  art.     Therein  the  Orientals  excel.    Who  cares  what  high  art  there  is  in 


408  POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN  IN  AMERICA. 

the  decoration  of  a  Chinese  dish,  so  the  colors  be  good?  No  house,  bridge, 
man,  or  flower  on  an  Oriental  plate  looks  like  a  house,  bridge,  man,  or 
flower ;  but  if  the  objects  are  indicated  in  the  gleaming  colors  in  which 
the  Oriental  porcelain  has  its  triumphs,  that  is  enough,  and  every  one  ad- 
mires, and  lias  right  to  admire  it. 

The  cabin  dinner  service  is  odd  and  queer,  and  wonderful  for  mixture 
of  colors  without  harmony  or  contrast.  There  is  a  very  rich  dark  blue 
abounding  in  the  decoration  which  was  never  excelled  at  Worcester;  but 
it  looks  lost  in  a  chaos  of  pagodas  and  trees  and  houses  painted  in  brick- 
red,  and  is  singularly  set  off  with  touches  of  yellow.  One  might  think 
the  service  was  made  by  Mason  at  Lane-Delph  but  for  the  unknown  mark, 
which  is  simply  "  Ileal  Iron-stone  China,"  under  a  large  crown.  Now,  al- 
though this  is  not  a  remarkably  rare  service  as  pottery,  it  may  serve  as  a 
text  whereon  to  discourse  a  little  in  regard  to  table  services  in  general.  It 
has  a  historv  of  its  own,  and  that  adds  to  its  interest  in  the  cabin  among 
the  mountains.  I  found  it  long  ago  in  a  second-hand  shop,  and  paid  the 
ignominious  sum  of  eight  dollars  for  the  lot,  some  forty  pieces  remaining 
whole.  When  it  was  sent  home,  a  servant  recognized  it  as  a  familiar  din- 
ner service.  "Ah,  many's  the  dinner  I've  seen  served  on  them  dishes, 
sir." 

"  You  have !     Where  2" 

"Why,  sir,  didn't  you  know  it  yourself?     That  was  one  of  Mr. 's 

dinner  services." 

And  so  it  was;  and  that  is  what  sometimes  makes  porcelain  wonder- 
fully curious  to  a  man  of  imagination,  though  it  does  not  materially  add 
to  its  value  for  a  collection.  To  think  what  dinners  those  were!  What 
stories  the  plates  could  tell!  Forty  years  ago  there  was  no  dinner-table 
in  America  around  which  a  more  brilliant  company  gathered.  The  host 
was  a  man  of  taste.  He  found  these  old  brilliant  colors,  and  they  lighted 
up  the  board  more  than  the  r-icliest  porcelain  with  flower  or  landscape 
decoration.  He  was  sensible  enough  to  use  iron-stone  china  for  state  din- 
ners when  it  was  what  he  admired. 

There  is  perhaps  less  good  taste  displayed  in  our  country  in  this  mat- 
ter <>f  table  services  than  in  any  other  household  adornment.  Men  who 
expend  money  freely  in  superb  furniture,  have  grand  drawing-rooms  and 
(lining-rooms,  rich  glass  and  heavy  silver  dishes,  exercise  no  sort  of  taste 
in  the  porcelain  on  which  they  serve  their  meals.  It  is  very  rare  to  see  a 
set  of  porcelain  which  is  out  of  the  ordinary  lines  of  French  or  English 
decoration  for  the  market.  Few  know  how  easy  it  is  to  make  a  breakfast 
or  dinner  table  bright  and  cheerful  by  selecting  and  varying  the  crockery 


COLLECTORS  AND   COLLECTING  IN  AMERICA.  409 

and  china.  I  say  crockery  as  well  as  china,  for  the  great  factories  of  the 
world  make  earthenware  which  is  amply  beautiful  for  royal  tables. 

A  very  simple  rule  for  the  guidance  of  those  who  wish  to  have  their 
tables  admired  is  to  avoid,  in  successive  courses,  the  endless  repetition  of 
the  same  service.  Select  sets  of  plates  only,  instead  of  buying  full  ser- 
vices. Have  a  number  of  sets  of  plates,  and  use  a  different  set  for  each 
course.  Then  buy  plates,  no  two  of  which  are  alike  except  in  shape,  and 
thus  make  harlequin  services  to  vary  the  entertainment.  The  importers 
are  always  ready  to  supply  such  varieties.  The  most  delicious  after-dinner 
coffee  services  that  eyes  ever  rested  on  can  be  made  up  by  choosing  the 
exquisite  cups  and  saucers  of  Copeland,  Minton,  Worcester,  or  other  Eng- 
lish factories,  in  a  dozen  shades  of  color,  making  a  collection  which,  when 
standing  on  a  tray,  is  as  gay  as  a  bouquet  of  flowers.  This  idea  of  harle- 
quin services  seems  to  shock  some  persons,  as  if  it  were  impracticable. 
But  let  them  be  assured  it  is  the  proper  thing.  In  the  old  factories, 
Sevres,  Dresden,  Berlin,  Ilochst,  and  in  short  in  every  first-class  factory,  it 
has  always  been  customary  to  make  costly  services  with  no  two  plates  or 
cups  alike  in  decoration,  except  perhaps  a  border  line.  The  most  charm- 
ing after-dinner  coffee  service  that  I  have  ever  seen  is  a  set  of  old  Dres- 
den and  Sevres  cups  and  saucers,  all  of  the  same  shape,  but  all  differing 
in  color  and  decoration. 

It  is  not  at  all  necessary  that  table  pottery  or  porcelain  should  be  old 
to  be  beautiful.  Doubtless,  as  a  general  rule,  old  porcelain  is  more  artistic 
in  decoration  than  modern,  and  this  proceeds  from  the  fact  that  in  the  last 
century  the  artists  who  worked  in  the  potteries  were  of  a  class  who  now 
seek  higher  pay  than  the  trade  can  afford.  Modern  j)orcelain  as  well  dec- 
orated, and  as  artistic  as  old,  can  be  bought,  but  it  is  costly.  Printing  has 
come  to  such  perfection  that  one  can  find  abundance  of  really  wonderful 
art  in  decoration  at  very  low  prices.  And  it  must  be  a  difficult  taste  to 
satisfy  which  cannot  find  among  the  cheap  earthenwares  of  our  day  an 
abundance  of  color  and  decoration  such  as  will  meet  the  most  fastidious 
demand,  to  say  nothing  of  the  superb  work  of  Berlin — now  the  leading 
Continental  factory — or  of  Copeland  and  Minton,  who  in  all  varieties,  ex- 
pensive and  cheap,  are  surpassing  the  world.  But  it  would  be  a  great  step 
in  educating  the  popular  tastes  if  we  could  expel  from  all  tables,  hotels, 
restaurants,  and  private  houses  the  white  stone- wares,  cups  a  half -inch 
thick,  and  go  back  to  such  blue-and-white  as  almost  every  family  in  the 
country  used  forty  years  ago.  The  suggestion  need  not  seem  startling 
that  a  table  would  look  well  with  a  blue-and-white  service  of  printed 
earthenware,  representing  a  milk -maid  at  work  among  the  cows,  or  the 


410  TOTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN  IN  AMERICA. 

impassable  bridge  on  Turner's  Caughley  willow -ware,  or  the  Victory  on 
Lake  Champlain,  or  the  Landing  of  Lafayette  at  Castle  Garden.  The 
fanners'  wives  of  New  England  and  New  York  fifty  years  ago  had,  as  a 
class,  more  good  taste  in  table  furniture  than  many  persons  in  our  cities 
now  have;  and  any  one  who  can  procure  a  few  of  those  old  crockery 
plates  may  be  proud  to  serve  a  course  at  dinner  on  them,  and  will  win 
praise  from  all  guests  who  have  correct  appreciation. 

In  the  next  place,  let  us  talk  of  j>ottery  and  porcelain  for  decorative 
uses.  Color  adds  cheer  to  rooms.  Of  course  taste  is  to  be  exercised  in 
the  use  of  color,  and  some  rooms  may  be  so  furnished  that  variety  of  color 
on  the  shelves  and  walls  will  be  in  bad  taste.  Such  rooms  are  very  rare. 
Wherever  a  picture  can  be  hung,  decorated  pottery  can  be  hung.  Few 
pictures  are  to  be  had  which  so  illuminate  and  gladden  a  room  as  paint- 
ings or  bright  colors  on  enamelled  wares.  These  rich  and  gleaming  deco- 
rations will  often  make  a  miserably  furnished  room  look  inhabitable  and 
cheerful,  and  pottery  and  porcelain  decorations  are  within  the  reach  of  all 
purses.  It  is  not  the  most  costly  specimens  that  are  the  most  decorative. 
Here  the  blue  Staffordshire  prints  have  a  mission  which  they  are  well 
fitted  to  perform. 

I  once  turned  from  a  trout-stream  to  ask  for  a  drink  of  milk  at  the 
door  of  a  small  farm-house  in  a  lonely  neighborhood.  It  was  given  to  me 
with  hearty  good -will,  in  a  dark -blue  Staffordshire  bowl,  which,  being 
praised,  the  farmer's  wTife  confessed  was  not  in  common  use,  but  had  been 
taken  from  a  pantry  where  it  rested  with  the  remains  of  an  old  service. 
The  kitchen  was  somewhat  ancient,  its  walls  smoky,  its  general  appear- 
ance dingy.  When  the  good  woman  heard  the  praises  of  her  crockery 
she  brightened  up,  and  expressed  her  affection  for  it,  so  that  the  natural 
thought  of  a  lover  of  such  wares  was  to  suggest  to  her  a  way  of  making  it 
useful  and  enjoyable.  In  two  minutes  a  twist  of  wire  had  made  a  frame 
to  hold  a  plate,  resplendent  with  blue  shells  and  roses,  a  dove  in  the  mid- 
dle, and  it  was  hung  on  the  wall  above  the  mantel  over  the  hearth.  Two 
years  afterward  I  fished  the  same  stream,  and  asked  for  milk  at  the  same 
house,  and  saw  the  kitchen  fresh  and  bright,  the  hard- wood  panels  shin- 
ing, and  a  dozen  or  more  blue  plates  making  it  as  superb  with  color  as  any 
city  mansion. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  consult  a  decorator  about  such  adornment.  Much 
that  is  very  plausible  has  been  said  about  the  arrangement  of  faience  and 
porcelain  on  walls.  Exercise  your  own  taste;  and  your  taste,  if  not  al- 
ready good,  will  improve.  A  room  will  grow  into  order  and  beauty  by  a 
natural  process,  and  plates  and  dishes  will  arrange  themselves  into  fine 


COLLECTORS  AND   COLLECTING  IN  AMERICA.  411 

contrasts  and  combinations  satisfactory  to  all  good  tastes,  though  possibly 
not  quite  agreeably  to  the  notions  of  those  who  are  bound  by  conventional 
rules  of  house  decoration.  There  is  a  great  charm  in  the  freedom  from 
uniformity,  and  the  luxuriance  of  color,  which  can  be  exhibited  on  a  wall 
decorated  with  plates  and  dishes,  but  it  is  a  lamentable  fact  that  few  pro- 
fessional upholsterers  or  decorators  have  any  conception  of  the  proper 
uses  of  such  color  decoration.  Hang  your  bits  of  beauty  where  you  like 
to  see  them.  Please  yourself,  and  scout  arbitrary  rules  which  produce 
constant  repetitions  of  a  few  conventional  ideas,  and  make  every  room  to 
look  like  every  other.  Listen  to  suggestions ;  accept  advice ;  cultivate  a 
teachable  disposition  ;  study  effects  of  color  and  arrangement ;  never  be 
confident  that  your  tastes  will  remain  any  more  steadfast  than  have  the 
tastes  of  educated  people  in  any  country ;  but  do  not  yield  the  delight  of 
your  eye  because  of  notions  of  other  people  about  harmony  of  colors  or 
orderly  arrangements. 

Harmony  for  you  is  in  your  own  eye,  ear,  and  mind ;  and  no  other 
mind  can  make  that  harmonious  to  you,  in  the  decoration  of  your  room, 
which  is  not  pleasing  to  your  own  taste.  Perhaps  you  may  be  laughed 
at,  but  the  chances  are  that  you  will  set  a  good  example  to  your  friends 
by  following  your  own  free  fancies. 

Hang  a  beautiful  object  where  you  can  see  it.  This  is  the  first  rule 
of  wall  decoration.  Mingle  your  beautiful  objects  in  whatever  confusion 
you  please.  Change  them  when  you  like.  Your  notions  of  the  beautiful 
will  change  from  time  to  time,  with  conversation  and  the  reception  of 
new  ideas.  But  if  you  attempt  to  follow  arbitrary  rules  in  arranging 
your  pictures  and  pottery  and  porcelain,  the  chances  are  that  you  will 
never  advance  a  step  beyond  stiff  conventionalisms,  and  your  rooms  will 
maintain  forever  a  cast-iron  rigidity  of  color  decoration. 

The  study  of  ceramic  art  and  the  collection  of  specimens,  whether  for 
cabinet  purposes  or  for  home  decoration,  should  lead  to  freedom  and  in- 
dependence of  taste.  The  collector  who  follows  the  opinions  of  others, 
and  guides  himself  by  what  others  consider  good  in  color  or  art,  will  get 
small  good  to  himself  by  collecting  specimens  in  any  department.  ISTo 
man  should  admire  the  Apollo  Belvedere  because  the  world  admires  it. 
It  must  compel  his  admiration  by  its  own  power.  Every  man  of  taste 
and  education  should  be  free  to  consider  the  Transfiguration  of  Raphael 
the  first  picture  in  the  world,  as  some  think  it,  or  to  regard  it  as  inferior 
to  many,  as  others  think  it. 

He  who  looks  at  works  of  art  and  enjoys  them  should,  for  the  sake  of 
others  as  well  as  himself,  be  independent  of  other  minds  in  forming  and 


412  rOTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN  IN  AMERICA. 

expressing  opinions,  and  should  not  hesitate,  whatever  may  be  the  taste 
and  judgment  of  others,  to  regard  the  marvellous  works  of  Turner  as 
wonders  of  the  highest  art  or  as  mysterious  daubs.  The  decadence  of  art 
begins  with  loss  of  independence,  and  slavery  to  arbitrary  rules  which  fet- 
ter it.     The  very  life  of  the  beautiful  in  all  art  is  in  freedom. 

This  subject  opens  up  at  once  the  question  whether  there  is  any  per- 
manent standard  of  the  beautiful.  Is  there  any  fixed  law  of  beauty,  or  is 
beauty  purely  and  only  a  matter  of  notion,  education,  personal  prejudice, 
fashion,  custom  '.  It  is  an  old  subject  of  difference  of  opinion,  but  the 
student  of  ceramic  art  in  all  ages,  and  all  its  styles,  cannot  avoid  the  con- 
viction that  there  is  no  standard,  and  that  in  all  matters  of  beauty,  in  art 
as  in  nature,  the  old  proverb  holds  good,  De  gustibus  nil  disjmtcmdum, 
whether  the  taste  be  that  of  the  palate,  or  the  nose,  or  the  eye,  or  the  ear. 

The  first  and  strongest  protest  against  this  conclusion  is  aroused  by 
the  use  of  that  word  "ear."  It  comes  from  those  who  insist  that  in  music 
there  is  a  iixed  standard  of  high  art,  and  that  to  doubt  or  deny  the  supe- 
riority of  this,  that,  and  the  other  passage  in  the  music  of  Mozart  or  Wag- 
ner, Beethoven  or  Chopin,  is  to  write  one's  self  down  destitute  of  taste  in 
music.  We  will  not  stop  to  discuss  the  subject.  The  claim  of  a  few 
scores  of  people  among  the  millions  of  modern  civilization  to  be  the  sole 
judges  of  what  ought  to  be  admired  in  music,  is  too  absurd  to  be  dis- 
cussed. What  is  called  musical  taste  is  a  mere  matter  of  education.  We 
can  grant  all  that  is  claimed  as  to  the  greatness  of  favorite  composers  and 
favorite  operas,  provided  only  it  be  remembered  that  this  greatness  is 
measured  by  a  standard  of  to-day,  and  that  a  few  years  hence  the  standard 
may  be  changed,  and  the  great  musical  works  of  this  day  may,  and  proba- 
bly will,  be  regarded  as  poor  stuff  by  the  people  who  will  claim  then  to 
be  the  only  judges. 

Very  much  the  same  thing  is  true  of  all  works  of  art.  No  civilization 
can  boast  of  superiority  to  that  of  ancient  Egypt,  and  probably  no  nation 
that  has  existed  since  the  days  of  the  Pharaohs  has  been  as  highly  edu- 
cated. Yet  if  you  could  recall  to  life  that  long  buried  social  system 
which  shone  with  all  possible  brilliancy  of  intellectual  culture  in  Mem- 
phis and  Thebes  three  thousand  years  ago,  and  submit  to  it  the  works  of 
Raphael  and  Domenichino,  you  would  not  tind  prince,  priest,  noble,  or 
peasant  who  would  give  a  silver  ring  or  a  land)  for  the  Communion  of 
St.  Jerome,  or  for  the  Seggiola  or  the  Sistine  Madonna.  And  why  not? 
Surely  not  because  they  were  not  people  of  refinement  and  taste,  but  only 
because  their  standards  were  other  than  ours,  and  what  we  think  beautiful 
they  would  not  admire. 


COLLECTORS  AND   COLLECTING  IN  AMERICA.  413 

Or,  again,  if  you  could  summon  from  his  grave  in  the  Pantheon  the 
great  Raphael  himself  to  be  foreman,  and  choose  from  among  the  giants 
in  art  a  jury  to  try  the  issue,  though  Correggio,  and  Giulio  Romano,  and 
Guido,  and  Andrea  del  Sarto,  and  Murillo,  and  Albert  Diirer,  and  Titian, 
and  other  mighty  men  of  fame,  of  varied  tastes  and  differing  styles  and 
standards,  were  on  the  panel,  and  to  such  a  jury  you  should  submit  the 
issue,  Are  Turner's  works  high  art  or  not  ?  are  Madrazo's  pictures  works 
of  beauty?  is  Meissonier  an  artist  of  enduring  fame  and  power?  is  this  or 
that  favorite  of  the  modern  schools  a  painter?  the  verdict  would  be  unan- 
imous against  them  all.  And  why?  Not  because  the  taste  of  modern  con- 
noisseurs is  vicious  and  their  judgment  wrong,  but  only  because  the  arbi- 
trary standards  of  the  cinque-cento  period  are  not  the  standards  of  our 
tastes  and  times.  If  Raphael  were  painting  to-day,  he  might  possibly  ed- 
ucate taste  to  his  standard ;  but  if  he  came  unknown  and  unheralded  by 
his  old  fame  into  the  artistic  field,  he  would  not  be  estimated  as  highly  as 
many  modern  painters;  and  Claude,  painting  as  a  new  artist  now,  might 
not  easily  earn  his  bread. 

This  seems  extravagant,  when  so  many  eminent  writers  insist  on 
standards  which  they  affirm  to  be  everlasting  standards  in  art.  But  these 
standards  are  pure  imaginations.  New  styles,  bold  violations  of  old  rules 
and  conventionalisms,  struck  out  by  vigorous  and  daring  artists,  effect  sud- 
den and  radical  changes  in  popular  taste,  because  they  educate  the  taste ; 
and  this  they  do  precisely  as  a  great  cook  produces  a  new  dish.  Men 
might  write  volumes  against  the  absurdity  of  liking  roast  lamb  with  mint 
sauce ;  but  when  a  cook  first  served  the  abominable  mixture,  some  one 
liked  it,  and  it  won  its  way,  and  no  one  can  prophesy  how  many  millions 
of  dollars  will  be  paid  for  the  mint  and  the  lamb  in  ages  to  come,  or  when 
the  dish  will  be  classed  among  the  relics  of  barbaric  taste. 

Do  not  think  this  illustration  degrading  to  art.  It  is  a  fair  and  good 
illustration,  for  the  pleasure  of  the  eye  and  the  pleasure  of  the  palate  are 
alike  free,  and  both  refuse  to  be  guided  by  arbitrary  instructors.  One 
may  learn  to  like  dishes  that  are  at  first  disliked,  and  one  may  learn  to 
like  pictures  that  are  at  first  displeasing.  But  no  one  can  like  a  picture 
or  a  dish  because  Mr.  A  or  Mr.  B  says  it  ought  to  be  liked,  or  dislike  it 
because  Mr.  C  or  Mr.  D  condemns  it.  It  will  do  no  harm  to  repeat  here 
an  illustration  already  noticed  in  an  early  section  of  this  volume.  To  us 
and  our  modern  taste  black  is  a  symbol  of  sorrow.  When  it  became  such 
is  perhaps  unknown.  But  it  has  become  so  by  arbitrary  taste.  The  old 
Greeks  of  the  fourth  century  before  Christ  were  one  of  the  most  accom- 
plished races  of  men  the  world  has  known.     Judged  even  by  our  own 


114  POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN  IN  AMERICA. 

standards,  their  civilization  was  of  as  high  an  order  as  ours.  In  architect- 
ure and  sculpture  we  are  proud  of  our  approximations  to  their  standards. 
Their  literature  is  the  study  of  our  schools.  But  the  Greek  drank  his 
wine  at  feasts  from  cups  of  brick-red  or  pale  yellow,  adorned  with  paint- 
ings in  jet-black;  and  when  art  in  Greece  reached  its  culmination,  he  only 
changed  them  for  cups  of  jet-black  with  pictures  in  brick-red.  Who  of 
our  puny  modern  race  shall  dare  to  say  that  the  builders  of  the  Parthe- 
non and  the  temples  on  the  banks  of  the  Ilissus  lacked  good  taste,  because 
black  was  with  them  a  color  of  festal  gayety  % 

Whether  an  object  is  or  is  not  beautiful  can  never  be  a  subject  of  dis- 
cussion. No  argument  touches  that  question.  It  is  a  pure  matter  of  as- 
sertion. For  example,  you  stand  before  an  object  of  art,  or  you  hear  a 
passage  of  music,  and  you  turn  to  your  friend  and  say,  "  It  is  very  beauti- 
ful." (For  we  have  gotten  to  affirming  beauty  of  sounds  as  well  as  sights, 
and  some  people  even  talk  of  a  beautiful  odor,  or  a  beautiful  boat  or 
horse  race.)  Your  friend  says,  "  No,  it  is  not  beautiful ;  it  is  wretched." 
There  the  difference  between  you  may  as  well  end,  for  no  discussion  will 
help  you  to  agree.  If  you  are  sensible,  you  will  say  to  yourself  or  to  him, 
"  It  is  beautiful  according  to  the  arbitrary  standard  which  I  have  been 
educated  to  use,  but  it  is  not  beautiful  according  to  the  standard  he  has 
been  taught  to  apply,  and  each  of  us  has  perfect  right  to  his  standard." 

I  know  a  man  who  by  birth,  education,  personal  character,  and  ability 
is  entitled  to  rank  with  any  man  in  Europe  or  America.  He  lives  in  the 
mansion  or  palace  in.  which  his  fathers  have  lived  before  him  for  more 
than  seven  hundred  years,  and  his  pedigree  is  stainless.  He  is  a  repre- 
sentative man,  of  a  civilization  not  like  ours,  whose  standards  are  wholly 
different  from  ours,  to  which  civilization  we  Christians  owe  very  much  in 
all  the  arts,  both  useful  and  ornamental.  He  is  an  Arabian,  of  the  blood 
of  the  Prophet.  In  his  house  is  a  wealth  of  beauty,  even  by  our  stand- 
ards. There  are  walls  whose  arabesque  decorations  in  enamelled  pottery 
are  superb.  There  are  lattices  by  which  the  outer  light  enters  through 
lace-like  meshes  of  wood-work  which  are  bewildering  in  beauty.  But  this 
accomplished  gentleman,  and  his  friends,  men  of  Oriental  culture,  prefer 
the  nasal  drone  of  the  Arabian  vocalist  to  the  songs  of  the  prima  donnas 
who  successively  reign  in  the  Khedive's  new  opera-house,  and  would  not 
give  a  piastre  for  the  finest  paintings  on  the  walls  of  all  Italy.  Not  be- 
cause they  are  not  men  of  taste  and  refinement,  nor  because  their  music 
ami  decorative  arts  are  better  than  ours,  but  because  their  standards  of 
beauty  are  arbitrary,  precisely  as  are  ours.  And  who  are  you  or  I  that  we 
should  assume  higher  powers  of  judgment,  and  assert  the  superiority  of 


COLLECTORS  AND    COLLECTING  IN  AMERICA. 


415 


our  standards  of  taste  over  that  civilization  to  which  almost  every  dec- 
orated church  and  private  house  in  New  York  owes  more  or  less  for  the 
most  effective  designs  in  color?  I  can  imagine  a  critic  undertaking  to 
teach  those  men  what  constitutes  true  beauty  in  art ! 

I  have  lingered  on  this  subject,  because  it  is  of  the  highest  practical 
importance,  especially  in  America,  where  as  yet  we  have  no  characteristic 
art.  Independence  of  taste  and  judgment  is  the  right  and  the  duty  of  the 
American  student,  and  lover,  and  patron  of  art.  Hitherto  we  have  been 
content  to  follow  guides,  adopt  established  tastes,  buy  what  of  the  beauti- 
ful bears  the  stamp  of  European  approval,  judge  our  native  work  by  rules 
prejudged  and  determined  in  other  countries.  The  time  is  surely  at  hand 
when  there  may  arise  American  schools  of  art,  and  it  may  well  be  hoped 
that  they  will  rise  with  freshness,  vigor,  individuality,  and  independence. 
If  Grecian  schools  of  art  had  adopted  the  rules  and  tastes  of  the  Phenician 
schools,  the  glory  of  the  Phidian  age  would  never  have  shone  through  all 
the  centuries. 

But  let  us  pass  on  to  a  practical  portion  of  the  subject.  We  were 
speaking  of  wall  decoration.  How  to  hang  a  pottery  or  porcelain  dish  on 
a  nail  is  a  puzzle  to  many.  Pound  frames  are  easily  made  of  wood  to 
hold  costly  and  fragile  pieces.  These  should  be  of  no  color  as  bright  as 
the  color  on  the  pieces.  Gilded  frames  are  rarely  suitable.  A  plain  dark 
color  is  generally  the  best,  and.  leaves  the  enclosed,  object  more  con- 
spicuous. 

Clasps  or  light  frames  of  tin  are  sold  which  are  equally  secure.  But 
any  one  can,  with  a  piece  of  brass  or  copper  wire,  make  a 
holder,  with  three  or  four  ends  turned  over  the  rim  of  a 
plate,  which  will  hang  it  safely.  Here  is  a  pattern  of  a 
holder  (111.  299)  which  I  have  invented,  and  which  any  vil- 
lage can  find  a  workman  to  make,  which  costs  but  a  trifle, 
and  which,  since  it  was  invented,  has  led  to  the  hanging  of 
many  hundred  beautiful  plates  formerly  reposing  in  dark 
closets. 

It  consists  of  two  pieces  of  annealed  brass-wire,  the  size 
of  the  wire  varying  according  to  the  weight  of  the  dishes 
to  be  hung.  A  quite  small  wire  is  used  for  plates  of  din- 
ner size.  The  ring  and  the  two  lower  arms  are  one  piece 
of  wire,  twisted  together  for  three  inches,  more  or  less,  be- 
low the  ring.  The  two  upper  arms  are  one  piece  of  wire, 
wound  in  the  middle  in  a  spiral  cylinder,  just  large  enough 
to  slide  freely  up  and  down  the  twist  of  the  lower  arms. 


299.  Wire  Frame 
to  hang  Plates. 


The  play  of 


4 lt'>  POTTERY  AND    PORCELAIN  IX  AMERICA. 

three  inches  determines  the  extremes  of  size,  in  dishes,  which  this  frame 
will  hold;  and,  of  course,  other  frames  can  be  made  for  larger  or  smaller 
objects. 

Bend  the  four  arms  to  fit  the  shape  of  the  back  of  the  plate;  fit  the 
lower  loops  on  the  rim;  slide  the  upper  loops  down  to  clasp  the  rim,  and 
tie  them  tight  with  a  bit  of  string.  The  plate  can  then  be  hung,  no  part 
of  the  wire  being  visible  except  the  ends  which  clasp  the  rim. 

And  now  to  speak  of  cabinet  collections.  Within  a  few  years  many 
persons  in  America  have  commenced  the  formation  of  these,  and  not  a 
few  collections  exist  in  private  hands  which  are  of  great  value,  beauty,  and 
interest.  The  formation  of  a  small  collection  of  pottery  and  porcelain  in 
this  country  is  not  a  difficult,  though  it  may  be  a  slow,  process.  But  it  is 
vastly  better  that  a  collection  should  grow  slowly  in  the  hands  of  a  student 
of  art,  than  that  he  should  acquire  numerous  specimens  at  one  time.  It 
is  not  only  a  greater  pleasure,  but  it  leads  to  closer  study,  to  gather  piece 
by  piece.  Many  errors  will  naturally  be  made.  Specimens  which  the 
collector  fancies  rare  will  turn  out,  after  resting  awhile  in  the  cabinet,  to 
be  of  small  account.  Experience  will  cost  something:  it  is  always  worth 
more  when  well  paid  for.  But  if  the  collector  is  guided  by  his  love  of  the 
beautiful,  instead  of  a  desire  to  possess  rare  varieties,  his  experiences  will 
be  less  costly  and  the  benefits  resulting  will  be  greater. 

America  is  much  richer  in  good  works  of  old  art  than  is  ordinari- 
ly supposed.  Many  families  of  respectability,  education,  and  former 
wealth  came  to  this  country  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries, 
bringing  with  them  more  or  less  of  their  household  treasures.  Americans 
have  been  for  a  century  past  extensive  travellers,  and  have  brought  home 
much  of  the  artistic  work  of  various  countries.  Bric-a-brac  shops  are,  in- 
deed, unknown  here.  There  is  not  one,  so  far  as  we  know,  in  America, 
which  can  be  properly  so  called.  But  they  will  soon  appear,  and  the  coun- 
try will  supply  them  with  abundance  of  bric-a-brac.  When  our  legislators 
are  wise  enough  to  appreciate  the  educational  value  of  works  of  art,  and 
to  see  that  no  principle  of  protection  is  involved  in  admitting  duty  free 
all  articles  manufactured  more  than  fifty  years  before  the  date  of  importa- 
tion, we  may  reach  the  end  of  the  present  barbarism  which  places  a  duty 
on  old  armor,  old  porcelains  and  potteries,  old  engravings,  paintings,  and 
other  art  products.  This  duty  at  present  forbids  the  American  collector 
to  compete  with  Europeans  at  auction  sales  in  Europe,  and  especially  ex- 
cludes the  rarest  and  most  important  examples  in  all  departments  of  art ; 
for  these  are  more  costly  because  of  their  greater  educational  importance, 
and  the  American  ad  valorem  duty  is  greater  precisely  in  proportion  to 


COLLECTORS  AND   COLLECTING  IX  AMERICA.  417 

the  educational  value  of  the  article.  Private  collection  is  essential  to  the 
formation  of  public  museums.  The  latter  grow  rich  only  by  absorbing 
private  gatherings. 

I  have  an  object  to  accomplish,  in  this  free  talk  with  my  reader,  whom 
I  believe  to  be  a  lover  of  art  and  willing  to  aid  in  this  purpose,  and  I  am 
therefore  persistent  in  directing  his  attention  to  it. 

I  have  said  that  bric-a-brac  shops  are  unknown  here.  They  form  no  un- 
important part  of  the  commercial  business  of  other  countries.  When  Eu- 
ropean bric-a-brac  can  come  to  ns  to  be  sold,  hundreds  of  women  will  rind 
in  our  large  towns  pleasant  and  profitable  business,  and  then  the  articles 
already  in  America,  now  going  to  ruin  in  garrets  and  closets,  will  be  gath- 
ered where  collectors  and  museums  can  obtain  them.  Every  European 
town  of  a  few  thousand  inhabitants  has  more  or  less  such  shops.  It  is  an 
important  industry,  not  alone  to  those  who  keep  the  shops,  but  to  those 
who  have  articles  worth  selling,  and  who  need  the  money  they  will  fetch. 
With  permission  to  import  articles  of  virtu,  we  might  hope  to  see  Amer- 
ican dealers  purchasing  them  in  European  markets,  and  American  travel- 
lers, no  longer  fearing  the  annoyances  of  custom-houses,  bringing  home 
with  them  illustrations  of  beautiful  art,  which  will  first  be  the  delight  of 
local  circles  of  friends,  and  finally  gravitate  into  public  museums. 

I  have  no  hesitation  in  begging  the  intelligent  reader,  man  or  woman, 
to  use  personal  effort  in  this  behalf,  to  the  end  that  at  least  works  of  old 
art  in  all  departments  may  lie  admitted  duty  free.  Those  who  are  not  fa- 
miliar with  the  subject  from  sad  experience  have  no  idea  of  the  impedi- 
ments which  a  custom -house  places  in  the  way  of  importing  small  art 
treasures,  and  this  in  spite  of  the  most  courteous  officers,  and  a  hearty  de- 
sire on  their  part  to  facilitate  the  process  of  importation.  My  own  sor- 
rowful experience  would,  if  recited,  move  the  compassion  of  all  lovers  of 
beautiful  objects.  Once  a  custom-house  carpenter,  in  reclosing  a  case  of 
rare  glass  from  Germany,  drove  a  long  nail  through  a  priceless  specimen, 
whose  cost  and  value  were  greater  than  that  of  all  the  other  objects  in  the 
case, and  the  replacement  of  which  was  impossible  forever.  Another  case, 
containing  carved  wood  from  Italy,  was  reclosed  without  restoring  the  in- 
terior guards  and  packing;  and  on  the  Government  cart,  in  the  streets  of 
New  York,  every  object  in  the  case  was  more  or  less  damaged,  and  several 
pieces  were  totally  destroyed.  1  say  nothing  of  the  melancholy  disappear- 
ance of  beautiful  things,  leaving  no  fragments  to  be  mourned  over.  One 
cannot  say  how  these  disappearances  occur. 

Nor  does  the  provision  of  our  law  admitting  "cabinet  collections  of 
antiquities"  duty  free  in  any  manner  aid  us,  since  the  Treasury  Depart- 

27 


lis  POTTEBT   AND    PORCELAIN  IN  AMERICA. 

ment  has  made  two  interpretations  of  this  provision,  substantially  annul- 
ling it.  The  Department  has  decided  that  the  provision  was  not  intended 
to  apply  to  private  importations,  and  that  "antiquities"  are  to  he  con- 
sidered as  distinct  from  "modern"  and  "mediaeval"  products,  neither  of 
which  last  two  can  be  admitted  free.  The  technical  distinction  between 
ancient  and  modern  faience  and  porcelain  has  been  long  established  as 
after  and  before  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century.  It  is  so  de- 
lined  in  all  the  scientific  books.  But  our  present  system  classes  antiquities 
in  ceramic  art  as  only  the  Egyptian,  Phenician,  Greek,  and  Roman  ;  and  a 
glazed  Norman  vase,  or  a  Saracen  tile  of  the  fifteenth  century,  or  an  Ital- 
ian majolica  dish,  or  an  old  Sevres  plate,  is  subject  to  a  duty  equal  to  about 
one-half  its  cost — not  its  intrinsic  value  as  pottery,  but  its  educational 
value  and  cost  as  an  illustrative  specimen  of  art.  It  is,  of  course,  clear 
that  the  American  collector  who  desires  to  purchase  at  European  auction 
sales  cannot  compete  with  European  bidders,  since  he  must  add  the  heavy 
customs  duty  to  the  price  he  pays  for  his  specimen. 

Americans  are  noted  for  their  abundant  willingness  to  purchase  costly 
articles  in  Europe.  They  will  outbid  all  other  purchasers  in  an  open  mar- 
ket, and  America  would  become  rapidly  wealthy  in  examples  of  art  in- 
dustry but  that  the  market  is  closed  by  our  own  laws.  In  plain  money 
terms,  this  is  the  case :  A  lot  of  specimens  of  old  faience  and  porcelain 
is  valued  by  European  experts  at  £1000.  A  "foolish"  American,  who 
wants  the  beautiful  objects  more  than  his  money,  is  willing  to  give  that, 
or  even  £1250,  for  them.  But  if  he  bids  £1000  and  buys  them,  they  will 
cost  him,  delivered  at  his  home  in  America,  £1500  ;  and  if  he  gives  £1250 
for  them,  the  cost  will  rise  to  £1875.  A  German,  Frenchman,  or  Eng- 
lishman, of  course,  gets  them  for  £1000,  for  there  is  no  duty  on  them  in 
any  European  custom-house. 

It  is  surely  unnecessary  to  say  that  the  question  of  protection  of  home 
industry  is  not  involved  in  this  subject.  The  solitary  argument  which 
has  been  uttered  in  favor  of  the  existing  law  was  the  sweeping  assertion 
of  a  senator,  in  reply  to  several  public  institutions  and  private  citizens 
who  asked  a  modification  of  the  tariff  on  this  point,  that  "it  is  only  rich 
men  who  want  to  buy  such  articles,  and  the  revenue  wants  their  money." 
( )n  the  contrary,  not  alone  a  few  rich  men  want  the  articles,  but  thousands 
of  citizens  of  moderate  means  desire  to  possess  them,  and  to  gather  them 
in  cabinets;  and  every  thinking  man  wants  them  to  come  to  America, 
where  they  Mill,  in  time,  fall  into  the  possession  of  village,  town,  and  city 
museums,  to  become,  as  we  have  elsewhere  in  this  volume  shown  clearly. 
of  inestimable  importance  to  national  wealth  and  industrial  production. 


COLLECTORS  AND   COLLECTING   IN  AMERICA.  419 

The  American  collector  is  for  the  present  confined  to  such  articles  as 
are  now  here.  The  old  potteries  and  porcelains  which  are  most  abun- 
dant in  America  are,  of  course,  those  which  were  imported  for  domestic 
use  in  the  last  and  present  centuries.  Among  these  were  many  of  great 
beauty,  which  would  be  treasures  in  any  collection.  They  are  chief!}7  Chi- 
nese, Japanese,  and  English  wares.  Of  the  Chinese  porcelains  of  the  last 
century,  great  quantities  were  imported  after  the  close  of  the  Revolution- 
ary War.  The  blue -and -white  is  generally  of  ordinary  character;  but 
many  polychrome  services  of  the  manufacture  of  the  time  of  Thang  were 
brought  out,  either  by  merchants  or  by  ship-masters,  for  special  gifts,  and 
specimens  of  much  beauty  are  to  be  found  in  the  possession  of  American 
families. 

Besides  these,  many  exceptional  pieces  of  the  rarer  old  Chinese  wares 
have  found  their  way  to  America  within  the  past  century,  and  are  some- 
times met  with  in  the  most  unexpected  places.  Bow,  Chelsea,  and  Derby 
contributed  very  little  to  American  home  furniture  in  the  last  century, 
but  the  remains  of  occasional  services  are  met  with.  "Wedgwood  wares 
are  frequent.  Lowestoft  porcelain  is  more  common  than  any  other.  It 
seems  to  have  been  very  largely  exported  hither,  and  three  families  out 
of  four  who  had  porcelain  at  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  were 
supplied  with  that  ware.  ]S"ext  to  this  in  quantity  we  have  found  the 
New  Hall.  It  abounds  in  old  houses,  and  very  beautiful  specimens  are 
not  uncommon.  Turner's  Caughley  wares  were  sold  to  America  in  con- 
siderable quantity,  both  porcelain  and  pottery,  but  in  general  of  the  more 
ordinary  class.  His  pottery  with  blue  printed  decorations  is  often  well 
worth  preserving.  Cream-colored  wares  and  salt-glazed  stone-wares  of 
the  latter  part  of  the  last  and  beginning  of  this  century  are  abundant  in 
xAmierica ;  and  of  the  latter,  many  very  beautiful  and  quaint  old  specimens 
are  to  be  found,  moulded  with  good  reliefs,  colored  and  plain.  It  is  gen- 
erally impossible  to  say  at  what  factory  these  were  made,  but  that  is  of 
small  consequence.  The  old  teapots,  graceful  in  form,  well  decorated, 
queer  and  ancient  in  their  very  aspect,  with  borders  of  green  leaves  em- 
bossed, bouquets  in  colors,  orange  bands  —  odd  combinations,  but  pretty 
withal — are  not  to  be  despised  as  works  of  art,  nor,  when  collectors  begin 
to  appreciate  them,  will  they  be  found  sufficiently  abundant  for  all.  ( !as- 
tleford  teapots,  with  pretty  relief  lines  in  blue,  or  with  well-executed  me- 
dallions, are  quite  often  found  in  old  houses. 

The  printed  wares  of  England,  from  1610  to  1825,  were  very  largely 
sold  to  America,  and  collectors  here  should  not  fail  to  gather  specimens. 
Staffordshire  potters,  especially  Clews,  of  Cobridge,  the  liidgways,  Enoch 


420  POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN  IN   AMERICA. 

Wood  &  Sons,  Rogers,  and  Riley,  found  an  American  market,  and  sent 
not  only  their  regular  patterns,  but  produced  a  great  many  special  patterns 
of  American  subjects.  The  common  notion  that  these  printed  wares  are 
valueless  crockery  leads  collectors  to  neglect  them.  They  are  becoming 
more  and  more  rare,  and  will  soon  be  highly  prized.  Some  of  them  are 
wonderfully  good  specimens  of  color. 

I  have  mentioned  these  as  the  old  wares  most  frequently  met  with  in 
American  houses.  It  may,  perhaps,  be  said  that,  as  a  general  rule,  an 
American  family  accumulates  a  greater  variety  of  porcelains  and  potteries 
than  a  European  family.  This  is  due  to  the  fact  that  Americans  have  al- 
ways purchased  in  markets  supplied  from  various  manufacturing  sources. 
For  example,  I  know  an  old  family  whose  porcelain  and  crockery,  which 
has  come  into  the  possession  of  the  family  by  inheritance,  includes  ser- 
vices in  Chinese,  blue-and-white  and  polychrome,  Japanese,  Bow,  Lowes- 
toft, Worcester,  and  New  Hall  porcelains;  and  Jackiield,  Liverpool,  Cob- 
ridge,  Shelton,  and  some  other  potteries.  Thousands  of  American  houses 
have  similar  pantries,  containing  specimens  of  other  and  a  great  variety  of 
fabrics.  I  have  purchased  good  specimens  of  old  Sevres  and  Rouen  from 
French  families  in  this  country ;  of  Dresden,  Hochst,  and  other  German 
factories  from  German  families. 

The  frontispiece  to  this  volume  shows  the  decorative  value  of  a  few 
old  plates.  It  is  not  a  fancy  sketch,  but  a  photographic  copy  of  the 
fireplace  and  chimney  in  a  room  in  an  old  New  England  country-house. 
The  mantel  is  of  plain  wood,  in  old  style,  without  ornament,  and  the  ex- 
cellent taste  of  a  lady  who  loves  art  has  made  it  brilliant  with  enamels. 
We  only  regret  that  we  cannot  give  the  colors  to  exhibit  the  charming 
effect.  The  tiles  which  surround  the  fireplace  are  blue-and-white,  deco- 
rated in  quaint  old  patterns  at  Delft,  except  the  corners,  which  are  Vene- 
tian. Above  them  hangs  a  row  of  five  ancient  blue-and-white  Chinese 
and  Japanese  plates,  of  various  patterns,  all  superb  in  color.  On  the  man- 
tel stand  from  time  to  time  such  ornaments  as  suit  the  taste  or  the  mood 
of  the  lady.  To-day  there  are  two  old  square  bottles  of  Chinese  porce- 
lain, a  pair  of  Sevres  cups  of  very  delicate  work,  a  drug  vase  of  Italian 
majolica,  and  two  tall  vases  of  German  glass,  graceful  in  shape  and  rich 
in  color.  On  the  wall  hang  both  paintings  and  plates.  The  paintings 
are  water-colors,  which  generally  harmonize  better  than  oil-paintings 
with  enamels.  None  of  the  plates  hanging  here  are  painted  with  sub- 
jects. It  is  not  often  that  pottery  or  porcelain  with  subject  paintings  can 
be  hung  with  other  paintings.  Rut  each  of  these  plates  is  a  gem  of  color. 
The  lower  one  of  the  three  in  the  middle  is  a  wonderful  piece  of  old  Jap- 


COLLECTORS  AND    COLLECTING  IN  AMERICA.  421 

anese  splendor,  a  wild  intermingling  of  every  color  known  to  ceramic  art, 
in  leaves,  flowers,  and  emblematic  designs  around  the  arms,  or  insignia,  of 
a  prince.  Above  it  is  a  plate  of  "  porcelaine  des  Indes,"  which  might  be 
mistaken  for  Lowestoft,  and  above  this  a  large  Delft  dish.  The  plate  at 
the  right  is  by  Wedgwood,  and  (a  rare  occurrence)  on  its  back  is  the  name 
of  the  person  for  whom  the  service  was  made — a  New  Englander  of  the 
last  century.  There  are  some  very  rare  and  very  beautiful  ceramic  treas- 
ures in  cabinets  on  the  other  sides  of  the  room  ;  but  this  chimney  is  impor- 
tant to  our  purposes,  as  well  as  beautiful,  for  many  of  the  plates  are  rep- 
resentatives of  old  services  in  the  family,  and  all  the  specimens  here  visi- 
ble, including  those  on  the  mantel,  excepting  only  the  Venetian  tiles,  were 
obtained  in  this  country.  There  is  no  one  specimen  which  for  beauty 
and  decorative  effect  is  not  worth  much  more  than  its  weight  in  silver. 

It  is  a  very  easy  matter  for  any  one,  with  patience  and  taste,  thus  to 
make  a  room  brilliant,  cheery,  and  full  of  bright  thoughts.  There  is  prob- 
ably no  New  England  village,  dating  its  settlement  from  the  last  century, 
which  could  not  furnish  material  for  many  such  decorations. 

One  or  two  personal  incidents  will  serve  to  afford  encouragement  to 
the  American  collector.  Some  years  ago  an  aged  German  gentleman  in 
New  York,  about  to  return  to  Europe,  asked  me  to  call  at  his  house  and 
examine,  with  reference  to  purchasing,  a  small  collection  of  porcelain, 
which  he  had  formed  in  his  youth  in  Germany.  The  result  was  the  acqui- 
sition of  some  delicious  figurines  of  Dresden,  Erankenthal,  Ludwigsburg, 
and  notably  several  beautiful  works  of  Melchior  at  Ilochst.  These  formed 
a  cabinet  collection  purchased  for  that  purpose.  But  when  about  to  take 
my  leave,  I  jocularly  asked  the  wife  of  my  old  friend  if  she  also  had  not 
some  china  in  her  pantry  to  sell.  She  replied,  with  a  laugh,  that  she  had 
plenty  of  old  crockery,  but  not  of  a  sort  any  one  would  care  for.  Would 
she  show  it?  "Certainly."  And  in  a  few  moments  a  servant  covered 
the  floor  of  the  room  with  Fiirstenberg  porcelain,  Niderviller  faience  of 
Beyerles  time,  Delft  dishes,  large  and  small,  decorated  in  queer  old  pat- 
terns, Leeds  pottery  baskets  and  dishes,  AVedgwood  cream -ware,  an  old 
Chinese  dish  of  great  beauty,  and  a  miscellaneous  lot  of  other  specimens. 

Driving  through  the  country  in  pleasant  Octobers,  we  have  sometimes 
found  our  way  into  pantries  of  old  houses,  and  not  always  without  reward. 
Chatting  on  the  portico  of  a  village  inn  one  day  with  a  man  who  seemed 
to  know  the  neighborhood,  we  heard  the  family  histories  of  most  of  the 
inhabitants,  and,  among  other  things,  the  account  of  a  house  out  of  which 
the  old  folks  had  died,  and  which  the  young  folks  were  refurnishing. 
"  What  did  they  do  with  the  old  furniture  f '     "  Put  it  all  in  the  garret." 


422  POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN  IN  AMERICA. 

uWhy  not  sell  it?"  "Who  to?  They'd  he  glad  enough  to  sell  it  if  any- 
body would  give  anything  for  it."  "  Could  we  see  it?"  "I  s'pose  so.  If 
you  want  to  look,  I'll  go  and  ask  him."  The  result  was  a  visit  to  the  gar- 
ret, not  far  away.  It  was  a  wonderful  place,  that  garret.  The  house  was 
old,  the  family  one  of  property  and  position  for  nearly  two  hundred  years. 
The  garret  contained  piles  of  ancient  furniture,  and  a  wreck  of  pottery 
and  porcelain  that  was  sad  and  solemn  in  the  eyes  of  a  collector.  Old 
blue -and -white  Chinese  wares  were  literally  trodden  underfoot,  for  the 
floor  was  covered  with  fragments  of  an  immense  service,  crushed  into 
thousands  of  pieces,  and  mingled  with  the  similar  relics  of  an  old  English 
cream-ware  service  delicately  painted.  Out  of  that  wreck  we  rescued  in 
good  order  some  rare  Chinese  plates  with  polychrome  decorations,  the 
Liverpool  mug  with  portrait  of  the  Honorable  John  Hancock,  elsewhere 
illustrated,  a  good  old  Wedgwood  cup  and  saucer,  and  a  few  other  pieces 
of  English  fabrics.  The  want  of  a  bric-a-brac  shop  in  the  neighborhood 
had  led  to  the  destruction  of  much  good  porcelain  in  that  garret,  where 
it  was  treated  as  worthless  trash. 

These  are  not  uncommon  incidents.  We  have  found  fine  specimens 
of  Rouen,  Nevers,  Delft,  Dresden,  Sevres,  Bow,  Derby,  and  many  other 
factories  in  New  York  "second-hand"  shops,  and  no  country  in  the  world 
presents  better  opportunity  for  the  gathering  of  Chinese  and  Japanese 
wares  of  polychrome  decoration,  which  are  fully  as  interesting  and  beau- 
tiful as  any  other  class. 

A  word  of  advice  to  the  beginner  who  is  gathering  specimens.  It 
should  not  be  necessary  to  give  such  rudimentary  advice,  but  the  experi- 
ence of  every  collector  who  is  consulted  by  beginners  will  confirm  its  ne- 
cessity. Your  first  question,  in  examining  a  specimen,  should  be,  "  What 
is  it?"  Determine  the  material  first  of  all.  Is  it  pottery  or  porcelain, 
hard-paste  or  soft-paste  ?  Hold  it  up  to  the  light.  If  it  is  thick,  use  a 
strong  light.  Endeavor  to  see  the  shadow  of  your  fingers  through  it.  If 
any  light  comes  through  it,  it  is  porcelain.  Do  not  be  hasty  in  deciding. 
Many  colored  porcelains  and  many  thick  porcelain  pieces  are  nearly 
opaque.  If  it  be  porcelain,  next  determine  whether  it  is  soft-paste  or 
hard-paste.  Your  touch  will  need  experience  before  you  can  depend  on 
it.  If  permitted,  try  the  bottom  rim  with  a  hie.  If  the  glaze  covers  the 
bottom  rim,  it  is  probably  soft-paste,  but  this  is  not  always  the  case.  The 
determination  of  the  character  of  the  ware  is  preliminary  to  looking  at 
the  mark,  if  there  be  one  on  the  piece.  Consult  the  Tables  of  Marks  in 
this  volume  for  the  meaning  of  any  mark  you  may  find.  Perhaps  it  will 
not  be  in  the  Tables.     No  index  of  marks  is  yet  complete.     Every  year 


COLLECTORS  AND    COLLECTING  IX  AMERICA.  423 

adds  information  on  this  subject.  Xor  are  the  marks  of  very  modern  fac- 
tories given  here,  except  in  connection  with  ancient  marks  of  the  same 
factory.  Experience  will  soon  teach  yon  to  recognize  most  modern  colors 
and  styles  as  distinct  from  the  old.  Do  not  ask  an  experienced  collector 
for  information  about  a  piece,  unless  you  show  it  to  him,  or  can  give  him 
an  exact  description,  stating  the  material  and  the  deiinite  characteristics 
of  the  specimen,  with  a  fac-simile  of  the  mark,  if  there  be  one,  and  a  copy 
of  the  decoration,  if  it  cannot  be  clearly  described  in  words. 

Let  us  now  talk  about  the  cost  of  specimens.  The  value  of  old  pottery 
and  porcelain  depends  on  many  circumstances.  The  rivalry  of  collectors, 
and  the  temporary  run  on  certain  factories,  whose  works  it  is,  for  the  time, 
the  fashion  to  collect,  may  change  entirely  the  auction  prices.  Specimens 
of  Bristol,  Dresden,  Chelsea,  Sevres,  China,  Worcester,  may  be  at  one  time 
songht,  and  the  prices  rise ;  a  year  or  two  may  change  the  mania,  and  the 
prices  fall.  But  fine  artistic  works,  of  whatever  fabric,  have  always  a 
tolerably  well-maintained  value.  In  America  prices  are  wholly  unestab- 
lished,  and  in  general  absurd.  The  few  dealers  who  sometimes  sell  old 
china  do  not  profess  to  much  knowledge  of  the  subject,  and  iix  prices 
which  are  ridiculously  cheap  on  some  articles  and  ridiculously  dear  on 
others.  We  have  seen  an  ordinary  specimen  of  a  common  German  fac- 
tory worth  a  dollar  or  two  marked  $15,  and  by  its  side  a  beautiful  Sevres 
dejeuner  service  of  1782  decorated  by  Baudouin,  with  factory  and  artist's 
signatures,  priced  at  $12. 

In  general,  however,  the  American  prices  are  much  higher  than  the 
value  of  the  articles,  for  the  reason  that  dealers,  and  too  frequently  pur- 
chasers also,  value  specimens  because  of  factories,  and  not  because  of  their 
artistic  merit.  The  mere  presence  of  an  old  Worcester,  Dresden,  or  other 
mark  is  thought  to  make  any  specimen  highly  valuable.  A  little  com- 
mon-sense advice  may  do  good.  Antiquity  adds  nothing  to  the  value  of 
a  specimen  unless  it  has  some  historical  or  artistic  value  apart  from  its 
age.  Beautiful  art,  of  whatever  factory  the  product,  is  valuable.  Beau- 
tiful art  of  rare  old  fabrics  is  more  valuable  because  such  specimens  are 
sought.  But  a  beautiful  work  of  an  uninteresting  factory  is  worth  more 
than  a  poor  work  of  a  renowned  factory.  Specimens  of  common  products 
of  Sevres,  Dresden,  Capo-di-Monte,  Chelsea,  and  other  celebrated  factories 
are  desirable,  in  large  collections,  as  illustrations  of  ordinary  commercial 
work.  But  in  small  private  collections  the  wares  of  the  most  renowned 
factories  are  valuable  only  when  they  are  specimens  of  beautiful  work. 

The  value  of  Italian  majolica  depends  wholly  on  the  merit  of  the 
pieces.     A  rapid  rise  in  the  prices  of  these  fabrics  has  occurred  within  a 


424  POTTERY  AND    PORCELAIN  IS  AMERICA. 


few  years,  since  they  first  began  to  interest  collectors.  Specimens  sold  by 
auction  for  £1<»  a  few  years  ago  became  worth  £100.  High  prices,  how- 
ever, are  paid  only  for  works  of  high  art.  The  range  of  prices  is  from  t'l 
to  £100,  exceptionally  fine  specimens  only  bringing  the  latter  price, and 
a  very  few  exceedingly  rare  and  tine  pieces  bringing  whatever  higher 
prices  the  desire  of  collectors  may  lead  them  to  pa}1.  The  large  majority 
of  specimens  are  nut  the  high-priced;  few  are  worth  £50,  much  fewer 
worth  £100. 

The  prices  of  Faience  d'Oiron  are  limited  only  by  the  fancies  of  col- 
lectors. The  specimens  of  this  ware  known  are  all  catalogued,  at  esti- 
mated valuations  ranging  from  £100  to  £1500. 

Extracts  from  a  few  catalogues  of  recent  sales  in  England  will  show 
the  range  of  prices  of  some  wares,  and  the  great  variation.  It  is  difficult 
to  obtain  an  idea  of  the  real  value  of  articles  from  such  catalogues,  without 
personal  inspection  of  the  objects.  Condition,  color,  quality  of  decoration, 
the  presence  or  absence  of  a  mark,  numerous  unexplained  circumstances, 
vary  the  prices.  These  extracts  will  suffice  to  show  the  collector  that 
much  caution  is  needed  in  purchasing  expensive  pieces,  different  examples 
of  the  same  piece  (such  as  a  Bow  milk-jug  with  the  bee)  bringing  very 
different  prices,  according  to  condition,  quality,  and  the  circumstances  of 
the  sale. 

PRICES  OF   SEVRES:    BERXAL   SALE,   1855. 

In  March,  1855,  the  collection  of  works  of  art  of  the  late  Ralph  Bernal,  Esq.,  in- 
cluding a  large  amount  of  pottery  and  porcelain,  was  sold  at  auction  in  London. 
The  prices  obtained  for  Sevres  wares  were  supposed  to  mark  the  highest  limit 
which  they  would  he  likely  to  attain,  and  the  prices  of  fine  specimens  of  such  kinds 
as  are  more  commonly  met  with  have  not  materially  advanced ;  while  vieux  Sevres 
vases  of  fine  character  have  since  that  date  advanced  enormously. 

£      s.    <i. 

Cup  and  saucer,  blue-ribbon  border,  roses  in  compartments 5  5  0 

"             "  apple-green,  exotic  birds  in  compartments *7  17  «'> 

"  gros  bleu,  with  Cupids IT  17  0 

"            ''  green,  Venus  chastising  Cupid,  and  a  dog,  in  landscape 2(5  0  0 

"            "  two  children,  etc.,  painted  by  Leguay 22  1  0 

"              "  green,  figures,  etc,  painted  by  Chabry  and  Merault 55  0  0 

"            "  gros  bleu  and  green,  with  Cupids 18  11  6 

"  gros  bleu  ami  green,  children,  painted  by  Viellard -7  6  0 

"            "  turquoise,  exotic  birds 9  9  0 

"            "  gros  bleu,  figures  in  landscape,  paii  tjd  by  Chabry 32  11  0 

"            "  gros  bleu,  nymph  reposing,  painted  by  Chabry $  60 

"  Rose  Du  Barri,  landscapes,  1757 22  0  0 

"  white,  Cupids  in  blue,  painted  by  Dodet,  1  Tt»:> 19  19  0 

"              "  gros  bleu,  exotic  birds 4  4  0 


COLLECTORS  AND   COLLECTING  IN  AMERICA.  425 


Cup  and  saucer,  deep-blue  borders,  wreaths  of  roses 5     0  o 

"             "       gros  bleu  and  gold,  seaports  and  figures,  painted  by  Morin,  1770 95     Go 

"  "       jewelled,  gros  bleu,  medallion  portraits  suspended  from  gold  wreaths, 

ruby  and  pearl  border  above,  painted  by  Leguay 80     0  0 

"             "       white,  peasant-girl,  etc.,  in  landscape,  painted  by  Noel 54  12  0 

"              "       gros  bleu,  two  soldiers  carousing,  painted  by  Morin,  1772 160     ()  (i 

"             "       gros  bleu,  groups  of  Oriental  figures,  painted  by  Leguay 107     0  0 

Ecuelle,  cover  and  stand,  gros  bleu,  six  subjects  of  Cupids,  painted  by  Chabry,  1771 ...  .  125     00 

Plate,  gros-bleu  border,  white  spots,  exotic  birds,  flowers  in  centre 4  15  0 

"     turquoise  border,  flowers  and  grapes 2  15  0 

"     green  border,  medallions  of  birds,  flowers 3  18  0 

"      borders  imitating  Limoge  enamel,  figures  and  arabesques 3     5  0 

Vase,  handles  goats'  heads,  gros  bleu,  medallion  of  Fame  recording  events  of  Time,  bou- 
quet of  flowers  on  reverse,  mounted  on  plinth,  14  inches  high  (bought  for  £17) 127     1  0 

Vase,  gros  bleu,  Venus,  Adonis,  and  Cupid,  painted  by  Pavon,  16|  inches  high 223  13  0 

Vases  (a  pair),  gros  bleu,  pencilled  with  gold  stripes,  medallion  of  sacrifice  to  Venus 

and  Bacchus,  mounted  on  ormolu  plinths,  14  inches  high 700     0  0 

Vase,  gros  bleu,  richly  ornamented  handles  and  festoons  of  leaves  raised,  medallion 
painted  with  a  peasant  and  girls  gathering  cherries,  a  donkey,  etc.,  in  landscape, 

group  of  flowers  on  reverse,  18  inches  high 871   10  0 

Vases  (a  pair),  gros  bleu,  handles  ornamented  with  foliage,  resting  on  masks,  paintings 
by  Gremont,  nymph  at  a  bath  ;  on  reverse,  flowers,  fluted  stems,  square  plinths,  15£ 

inches  high 900     0  <  > 

Vases  (a  pair),  Rose  Du  Barri,  groups  of  Cupids  in  medallions,  14i  inches  high 1942   10  0 

Vases  (a  pair),  turquoise,  medallions  of  a  shepherdess  with  sheep  and  a  dog,  and  a 

girl  bathing  her  feet,  18  inches  high 1417  10  0 

Later  sales  have  indicated  a  great  increase  in  the  passion  for  vieux  Sevres.  At 
Mr.  Angerstein's  sale,  three  green  jardinieres  and  stands,  with  pastoral  figures  after 
Boucher,  and  fruit  and  flowers,  brought  475  guineas.  At  Lady  Truro's  sale,  three 
eventail  jardinieres,  white  and  green  ribbons,  with  Cupids,  date  1757,  brought  1750 
guineas.  At  P.  Solomon's  sale,  a  cup  and  saucer  brought  81  guineas,  another  105, 
another  110,  and  another  140  guineas.  At  Captain  Rickett's  sale,  a  bleu-de-roi 
vase,  16-j  inches  high,  painted  with  figures  fishing,  brought  1350  guineas;  and  a 
cup  and  saucer,  with  Chinese  figures,  £161. 

PRICES  AT   SALE   OF   THE   COLLECTION   OF  A.  MORSE,  ESQ.,  LONDON,  MARCH,  1876. 

Bow :  £  a.    ,i. 

Figure  of  Winter 5  7  6 

Two  dogs  in  an  arbor 2  In  0 

Milk-jug.  form  of  two  goats,  bee  in  relief 3  5  0 

Figure  of  Neptune,  9  inches  high 8  15  0 

Butter-boat 0  1 ::  0 

Bristol  : 

Pair  of  butter-boats,  embossed  and  painted  with  flowers 4  15  0 

Mug,  flowers  and  insects 6  0  0 

Pair  of  figures,  shepherd  and  milkmaid 126  0  0 


A-'l 6  TOTTERY  AND  TORCELAIN  IN  AMERICA. 

Chelsea  :  x  s.  a. 

Pair  of  pastoral  figures 12  15  0 

Figure,  Romeo,  1 2-J  inches  high 27  0  0 

"       Milton,  1  -J.  inches  high 8  10  0 

Pair  of  figures,  pedlers 52  0  0 

Teapot,  flowers 1  5  0 

(  iitl'ee-pot,  flowers 3  15  0 

Cup  and  saucer,  gold  and  flowers 3  9  0 

Plate,  flowers 2  00 

Fruit-dish,  fruit,  flowers,  insects 3  15  0 

Figure,  girl  by  urn,  8£  inches  high 6  0  0 

Vase,  florid  rococo  style,  raised  flowers,  medallions  of  Cupids 25  4  0 

Chelsea  Derby  : 

Four  figures,  Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  America,  13  inches  high 74  11  0 

Derby : 

Plate,  medallion  of  hunting  subject 2  4  0 

Cream-ewer,  helmet  shape,  gold  and  blue 0  15  0 

Vase,  13  inches  high,  landscapes 11  0  0 

Vase,  medallion,  birds 2  0  0 

Cup  and  saucer,  flowers 0  9  0 

Pair  of  vases,  mask  handles,  bird 3  3  0 

Plymouth : 

Pair  of  groups,  Cupids  and  goats,  8  inches  high • 28  7  0 

Open-work  basket,  white,  with  raised  flowers 4  0  0 

Salt-stands,  pair,  encrusted  with  shells G  16  0 

"                "     rustic  groups,  foliage,  etc 42  0  0 

Swansea  : 

Cup  and  saucer,  flowers 2  0  0 

Plate,  large  bouquet 5  5  0 

Pair  of  plates,  fruit,  flowers,  birds 2  15  0 

"Worcester  : 

Mug,  parrots  and  fruit 0  15  0 

Two  cream-jugs,  Chinese  figures,  etc 0  7  0 

Pair  of  coffee-cups,  print,  garden  party 2  15  0 

Cup  and  saucer,  flowers  in  blue 1  5  0 

"             "       turquoise  borders,  flowers 3  12  0 

"             "       green  border,  flowers 1  5  0 

Mug,  turquoise  border,  flowers,  etc 5  15  0 

Two  plates,  blue  and  gold  border,  birds 6  10  0 

Teapot,  salmon-scale  ground,  medallions  of  flowers 5  15  0 

Cup  and  saucer,  salmon-scale  ground,  medallions  of  flowers 3  3   0 

Mug,  Hancock  print,  Marquis  of  Granby 5  5  0 

Half-pint  mug,  Hancock  print,  birds 3  14  0 

.lug,  S  inches  high,  exotic  birds,  square  mark 30  0  0 

Five  cups  and  saucers,  blue,  crescent  mark 1  1  7   <» 

Mask  jug,  blue  ami  gilt,  crescent  mark 3  150 

Plate,  birds  and  insects  in  compartments,  square  mark 14  0  0 

Plate,  print,  the  garden  party,  square  mark 2  5  0 

Six  mugs,  blue,  crescent  mark  .. : 4  8  0 


COLLECTORS  AND   COLLECTING  IN  AMERICA.  427 

Worcester,  continued :  i    s.  d. 

Two  mugs,  blue,  crescent  mark , 1     0  0 

Jug,  9  inches  high,  mask  lip,  canary  ground,  painted  flowers  and  insects,  panels  with 

prints 37  10  0 

Miscellaneous : 

Pair  of  New  Hall  plates 1   16  0 

Pair  of  plates,  roses  and  gilt,  signed  7to.se  Coalport 2     0  0 

Spode  vase,  landscape  in  lake 1     2  0 

Spode  basket,  beautifully  painted  view  in  Surrey 2     0  0 

Two  Pinxton  mugs,  landscapes 1   10  0 

Battersea  enamels,  boxes,  etc.,  from  £1  to 2     6  0 

Capo-di-Monte,  white  group,  lovers 6     6  0 

Dresden  group,  lovers 13  13  0 

Another  Dresden  group 16     0  0 

Wedgwood  &  Bentley  vase 10     5  0 

Another,  black  ware 3   17  6 

Wedgwood  medallion  of  Napoleon 1     0  0 

SALE   OF   COLLECTION   OF  PHILIP   P.  COTHER,  ESQ.,  LONDON,  FEBRUARY,  1875. 

Bow:  x     9.   d. 

Cream-jug,  goats  and  bee 25  10  0 

Cup  and  saucer,  pine-cone  surface 3  15  0 

Bristol  : 

Two  cups  and  saucers,  blue 1     1  0 

Cup  and  saucer  of  the  celebrated  Champion-Burke  service 83     0  0 

(One  sold  at  the  Walker  sale  for  £90,  and  at  Edkin's  sale  for  £93.) 

Two  figures,  shepherd  and  shepherdess 31    16  0 

Figure  of  Spring,  white  (engraved  in  Owen,  Plate  XL) 54     0  0 

Capo-di-Monte  : 

Cup  and  saucer,  with  Triumph  of  Neptune  and  Rape  of  Proserpine  in  relief 22  10  0 

Another,  classical  subject 7  10  0 

Another,  later  period 3     3  0 

Group,  a  satyr  and  Cupid  on  a  goat 2     2  0 

Derby  : 

Four  figures,  the  Elements 31     0  0 

Pair  of  groups,  mother  and  child,  and  Doddridge  and  his  mother 20     0  0 

Vase  and  cover,  views  and  river-scenes  in  sepia 3   12  6 

Turquoise  vase,  birds 5   10  0 

Dresden  : 

Cup  and  saucer,  Marcolini,  gros-bleu  ground,  nymphs  after  Angelica  Kauffman 14     0  0 

Cup  and  saucer,  subjects  after  Watteau 8     5  0 

Teapot,  landscape  in  pink 1   1  .">  1 1 

Cup  and  saucer,  landscape  and  seaport 118  0 

Plymouth : 

Mug,  gold  chain  border,  exotic  birds  in  a  landscape 41   10  0 

Another,  smaller,  birds  in  landscape 7     5  0 

Nantgarrow  : 

Plate,  impressed  borders,  in  centre  dowers 4     4  0 

Pair  of  vases,  blue,  flowers  by  Pardoe 6  10  0 


428  POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN  IN  AMERICA. 

Miscellaneous:  £  »■  a. 

Sevres  cup  ami  saucer,  Venus  and  Adonis,  by  Taillandier 7  10  0 

Si.  Cloud  cup  and  saucer,  Trou's  mark 1  6  0 

Tournay  cup  and  saucer,  battle  scenes 1  6  0 

M. ■iiccn  sucrier,  landscape  and  river  scenes 7  -r>  0 

Vienna  plate,  Eneas  and  Dido,  gold  and  floral  border 18  0  0 

Vienna  cup  and  saucer,  rose  ground,  nymph  and  Cupid 8  0  0 

Herend  tankard,  serpent  and  lizard  handles,  perforated,  and  enamelled  m  colors..  .  .  11  0  0 

Worcester  hexagonal  vase,  salmon-scale  ground,  exotic  birds,  square  mark 158  0  0 

Worcester  oviform  vase,  blue,  birds  and  plants  in  Japan  style,  square  mark 32  0  0 

Cup  and  saucer,  bouquets,  Dr.  Wall's  mark 13  15  0 

Cup  and  saucer,  gros  bleu,  animals  in  rich  gold  borders,  square  mark 20  15  0 

At  this  sale,  among  other  property,  six  plates,  gold  borders,  painted  with  plants, 

marked  "Leeds  pottery,"  brought  £2  4s. ;  Chelsea  groups  brought  from  £3  to  £29. 

SALE   OF   COLLECTION   OF   DR.  F.  GIBSON,  LONDON,  MARCH,  1877. 

[This  collection  was  exclusively  flue  old  Wedgwood  ware.] 

Wedgwood  :  s.  >.  &. 

Thirty-seven  medallions  in  black  basaltes,  Roman  emperors 15  1  ii 

Erasmus,  black  basaltes  medallion -1  -I  0 

Others  in  same  ware,  from  £1  to -  -  0 

White  biscuit  medallion  of  Thomas  Bentley 5  0  0 

"                     "              Sir  William  Hamilton 4  10  0 

Others,  from  £1  Is.  to 1  17  6 

Blue  jasper  medallions,  by  Wedgwood  &  Bentley,  of  Sully,  £6  6s. ;    Palteologos, 

£7  17s.  6d.  ;    Dr.  Franklin,  £12  12s. ;   Admiral  Keppel,  £8  18s.  6d. ;    Captain 

Cook,  £15  15s. 
Blue  jasper  medallions,  by  Wedgwood,  of  Shakespeare,  £16  16s. ;  Garrick,  £17  17s. ; 

Reynolds,  £9  9s. ;  William  Franklin,  £5  15s.  6d. ;  Josiah  Wedgwood,  £10  10s. ; 

Benjamin  Franklin,  in  fur  cap,  £11. 

Venus  Callipyges,  medallion  oval,  white  on  purple 15  15  0 

Flora,  the  companion  oval 18  18  0 

Apollo  and  the  Muses,  ten  oval  blue-and-white  plaques 79  16  0 

Twenty-three  medallions  in  a  frame 94  10  0 

Eighteen  medallions  in  a  frame 99  1  .">  0 

Thirty-seven  medallions  in  a  frame 1  1  5  1<>  0 

Blue  jasper  flower-pot,  reliefs 7  7  0 

Blue  jasper  vases,  £8   L8s.  (id.  and 10  10  0 

White  biscuit  bust,  Voltaire 28  7  '» 

(  hi  Ion  n  vast',  pale-blue  jasper,  white  reliefs 9U  6   0 

Oviform  vase,  blue  jasper,  white  relief,  Hercules  in  garden  of  the  Hesperides,  1  1 

inches,  by  Flaxman 120  1">  0 

Another,  similar,  by  Lady  lieauclerc 1<>"  16  0 

Companion  to  last 106  on 

Head   of   Medusa,  medallion,  blue-and-white  jasper,  5J   inches   diameter,  by   Wedg- 
wood &  Bentley 52  10  o 

Plaque,  Apollo  and  four  Muses,  blue-and-white  jasper,  1  T>  [  X  tl }  inches,  by  Flaxman.  131  5   0 

Companion  plaque,  Muses 1 3 1  5  0 


COLLECTORS  AND   COLLECTING  IN  AMERICA.  429 

Wkdgwood — continued  :  £    8    d 

Offering  to  Peace,  by  Flaxman,  10$  X  Z\  inches 99  15  (> 

Achilles  dragging  body  of  Hector  around  Troy,  1  s.l  x  5|  inches 121   16  0 

Priam  begging  body  of  Hector,  15  X  tU  inches 136  10  0 

Other  plaques,  £44,  £46,  £98,  £25,  £19,  £50,  £5  5s. 

Vase,  black  jasper,  reliefs  in  white,  Apotheosis  of  Homer,  head  of  Medusa,  Pegasus 
on  the  cover,  other  rich  relief  ornaments,  25  inches  high  with  pedestal,  on  which 
sacrifice  to  Flora  and  to  Cupid,  etc *735     0  0 

It  is  quite  impossible  to  give  tlie  collector  any  definite  information  of 
the  value  of  Oriental  porcelains  without  the  presence  of  examples.  A 
slight  variation  in  the  shade  of  color  in  a  blue,  or  red,  or  other  specimen 
makes  a  vast  difference  in  its  rarity.  Fashion  among  collectors,  also,  con- 
trols the  prices  of  Chinese  and  Japanese  wares  more  than  those  of  any 
other  fabrics.  Old  blue-and-white  is  now  much  sought,  and  very  costly  if 
fine.  Nor  is  there  any  established  rate  of  prices.  In  the  Centennial  Ex- 
hibition at  Philadelphia  (where  very  few  good  specimens  of  old  Chinese 
ware  were  shown),  we  saw  in  the  Chinese  department  a  vase  of  a  rare 
shade  in  blue  marked  as  "  sold  "  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  and  on 
the  same  day  a  much  finer  specimen  of  the  same  shade  offered  in  a  deal- 
er's window  for  seventy  dollars.  There  are  specimens  of  Chinese  color 
which  are  excessively  rare,  and  the  makers  did  not  exaggerate  when  they 
compared  them  to  gems.  These  are  costly,  and  worth  whatever  the  ad- 
mirer can  persuade  himself  to  give  for  them  ;  for  to  possess  these  speci- 
mens of  enamel  color  is  worth  more  than  money  to  one  who  has  money 
to  expend.  They  are  unfading  beauties.  Such  are  some  of  the  blues, 
and  some  rarely  seen  specimens  of  iridescent  liver-color.  But  among  Eu- 
ropean dealers  I  have  found  the  prices  of  even  the  most  rare  colors  vary- 
ing fifty  per  cent,  in  shops,  and  almost  never  approximating  to  uniformity 
in  different  cities.  The  collector  must  therefore  be  left  to  bargain  with 
the  dealers  for  Oriental  porcelains,  and  to  bid  at  auction  sales,  just  accord- 
ing to  the  force  which  his  admiration  of  an  article  exerts  on  his  purse. 

The  prices  which  have  been  quoted  will  serve  to  show  the  American 
collector  the  great  difference  in  the  estimated  value  of  different  works  of 
the  same  factories.  This,  as  in  all  other  classes  of  art,  is  a  mere  question 
of  the  merit  of  the  work.  An  old  Sevres  cup  and  saucer  may  be  worth 
one  pound  or  a  hundred  and  fifty  pounds,  precisely  as  a  piece  of  painted 
canvas  may  be  worthless  or  priceless. 

It  would  be  quite  useless  to  enter  into  discussion  with  lovers  of  paint- 
ing who  think  that  there  is  no  possible  merit  in  decorations  on  enamels 
considered  as  paintings.  This  is  a  pure  question  of  taste  and  education, 
and  we  who  admire  the  work  of  some  artists  on  pottery  and  porcelain 


430  POTTERY  AXD  PORCELAIN  IN  AMERICA. 

have  as  good  right  to  our  preferences,  and  as  ample  justification  of  our 
expenditures,  as  they  who  buy  canvas  and  panel.  I  have  flower  paintings 
on  porcelain  which  I  would  not  exchange  fur  any  canvas  I  have  ever  seen  ; 
nor  would  I  part  with  some  heads  and  subjects  in  miniature,  on  Dresden, 
Sevres,  and  Capo-di-Monte,  for  any  miniature  work  that  I  have  seen  of 
any  artists  on  ivory,  paper,  or  panel.  My  friend  laughs  at  me,  and  points 
to  his  gems  of  modern  European  art  as  the  illustrations  of  a  correct  taste 
in  paintings.  And  I  laugh  at  him, pitying  his  inability  to  appreciate  what 
I  admire,  and  so  we  are  even.  And  both  are  right,  for  both  love  the  beau- 
tiful in  different  developments. 

Tf  art  study  be  guided  aright,  with  deference  to  the  varying  tastes 
and  the  different  constitution  of  men's  minds,  with  hesitation  in  forming 
opinions,  but  independence  and  firmness  in  opinions  when  formed,  it  will 
have  perhaps  a  greater  influence  on  personal  character  than  any  other  or- 
dinary study.  As  the  more  men  know  in  general,  the  more  they  appre- 
ciate their  own  ignorance,  so  increased  knowledge  of  art  history  and  the 
study  of  examples  makes  men  more  teachable,  increasing  constantly  that 
humility  which  regards  great  artists  and  great  works  of  art  as  masters  and 
books  from  which  we  are  to  learn,  and  not  as  objects  of  ignorant  discus- 
sion and  criticism. 

The  judicious  student  will  keep  in  mind  the  truth  that  every  work  of 
art  is  an  embodiment  of  thought;  that  examples  of  art  are,  like  books, 
some  worse  than  worthless,  others  volumes  of  truth  ;  that  collections  are 
libraries  of  reference,  condensations  of  artistic  learning,  not  without  occa- 
sional instructive  examples  of  artistic  ignorance  or  folly,  sometimes  assem- 
blies of  the  whole  art  mind  of  a  century  or  an  age.  Thus  the  study  can- 
not fail  to  become  elevating  and  refining,  expanding  the  mind  and  teach- 
ing it  sympathy  in  thought  and  feeling  with  the  whole  race  of  man,  which 
has  from  all  time  found  expression  for  its  emotions  in  these  examples 
which  we  collect  and  study. 

The  mere  possession  of  and  constant  association  with  things  beauti- 
ful, without  study,  will  have  good  influence  on  character.  The  presence 
of  fine-art  products  exerts  a  power  over  the  rudest  intellect.  The  crowds 
who  sometimes  attend  art  exhibitions  on  public  days,  as  in  the  Metropoli- 
tan Museum  of  Art  in  New  York,  including  all  classes  of  society,  are  in- 
variably orderly,  kindly  disposed  to  one  another,  readily  yielding  posi- 
tions, each  anxious  that  all  should  see  and  enjoy  beautiful  objects.  This 
influence  is  no  mystery.  Examples  are  exceedingly  rare  of  persons  who 
desire  to  monopolize  the  knowledge  and  sight  of  beauty.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  seems  to  be  innate  in  all  men  to  desire  that  others  should  share 


COLLECTORS  AND    COLLECTING  IX  AMERICA.  431 

with  them  the  pleasure  of  looking  at  beautiful  scenes  or  objects.  Perhaps 
it  is  because  the  beautiful,  in  nature  or  in  art,  never  wastes,  becomes  no 
less  rich,  however  many  eyes  and  minds  feast  on  it.  But  I  prefer  to 
think  that  men  have,  in  the  presence  of  the  beautiful,  more  than  in  ordi- 
nary life,  the  sense  of  universal  brotherhood.  Beyond  cavil,  museums  of 
art  are  educational  institutions  of  the  highest  value,  and  have  at  least  as 
great  civilizing  power  in  communities  as  high  schools  and  colleges. 

But  if  my  reader  insists  on  a  utilitarian  view  of  art,  and  asks  what  is 
the  practical  value  of  beauty  in  a  community  or  a  nation,  I  refer  him  to 
what  has  been  said  of  the  history  of  ceramic  art  in  England,  and  the  in- 
dustrial results  which  have  there  followed  the  making  of  collections  of 
pottery  and  porcelain  within  a  century. 

The  great  industrial  value  of  this  art  is  hardly  known  in  our  country. 
The  ability  to  make  beautiful  things  is  here,  and  thousands  of  men  and 
women  would  find  employment  fitted  to  their  talents  in  the  decorative 
arts  if  the  market  were  created  which  would  justify  the  establishment  of 
potteries  of  the  higher  class  Every  collection  of  "old  china,"  however 
small,  helps  towards  the  education  of  the  people  and  the  creation  of  the 
desire  to  possess  beautiful  porcelain  and  pottery  for  home  use.  Thus,  and 
thus  only,  the  market  is  to  be  established.  Here  and  there,  all  over  the 
country,  these  small  influences  will  unite  with  each  other;  and  at  length 
the  great  object  of  the  sensible  political  economist  will  be  accomplished, 
and  beauty  in  household  potteries  will  furnish  a  new  employment  among 
the  industrial  pursuits  of  our  country.  A  collection  of  beautiful  ceramic 
specimens  has  in  it  a  power  similar  to  that  which  reposes  in  the  water  of 
the  lake  before  my  cabin,  which  sparkles  in  the  light  of  the  August  moon 
as  I  write  these  concluding  pages.  Pretty,  charming,  even  grand  in  scen- 
ery, but  in  the  forest,  thousands  of  feet  above  the  sea,  it  is  apparently  a 
very  useless  bit  of  beauty.  But  the  stream  that  flows  from  it,  receiving 
and  uniting  with  streams  from  springs  and  lakes  scattered  here  and  there 
among  the  hills,  becomes  the  Merrimac,  turns  the  wheels  of  innumerable 
mills,  and  gives  employment,  bread,  and  clothing  to  a  hundred  thousand 
people.  It  is  a  trite  illustration,  but  the  utilitarian  or  the  political  econo- 
mist has  perhaps  never  applied  it  to  beauty  in  art,  as  a  power  to  be  ex- 
erted among  the  industries  of  a  people.  Nevertheless,  the  history  of  our 
subject  is  full  of  evidences  of  the  truth  that  beautiful  art  is  a  very  good 
thing  to  cultivate  for  the  market,  never  supplying,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
always  increasing  the  demand. 

As  I  approach  the  end  of  my  work,  I  desire  to  impress  on  the  minds 
of  collectors,  especially  young  persons,  the  importance  of  making  their  col- 


432  POTTERY  AND    PORCELAIN   IN  AMERICA. 

lections  useful,  and  not  mere  gatherings  of  rarities.  It  is  a  waste  of  time 
and  money  to  collect  articles  only  because  other  people  wish  them,  and 
they  are  therefore  prized.  To  one  who  collects  pottery  and  porcelain  only 
because  it  is  the  fashion,  and  who  buys  rarities  only  for  the  sake  of  pos- 
sessing them,  a  collection  of  postage- stamps  would  be  more  useful.  lie 
might  from  that  learn  at  least  something  of  geography,  while  from  his 
ceramic  collection  formed  on  such  principles  he  is  certainly  not  the  per- 
son to  learn  anything  whatever.  Collect  for  art  study,  or  for  historical 
study,  or  for  the  love  of  the  beautiful,  the  study  and  enjoyment  of  the 
beautiful. 

But  what  shall  one  do  with  a  collection  of  beautiful  works  of  art  when 
one  can  no  longer  enjoy  them  %  For  the  day  comes  when  the  delight  of 
the  eye  fades,  and  the  beautiful  things  of  human  art  become  of  no  account 
to  us.  Art  outlasts  the  artist,  and  remains,  the  perpetuation  of  thought, 
for  good  or  evil  influence.  The  collector  has  a  mission,  not  only  in  gath- 
ering for  his  own  enjoyment  and  instruction,  but  in  handing  down  to  his 
children  or  to  succeeding  generations  the  means  of  pleasure  and  profit. 
It  is  something  to  have  left  behind  one  in  the  world  that  which  will  give 
even  a  moment  of  happy  rest  and  refreshment  to  one  of  the  weary  labor- 
ers of  times  to  be.  It  is  something  more  to  have  left  that  which  will  in- 
struct, improve,  and  benefit  others.  Whoever  he  was  that  showed  the 
enamelled  cup  to  Palissy  had  small  thought  of  the  vast  consequences  to 
follow.  There  are  museums  of  art  in  many  American  cities,  and  histor- 
ical and  other  museums  in  hundreds  of  our  large  and  small  towns  and  vil- 
lages. Make  your  will,  and  if  you  have  no  children  who  will  be  educated 
and  benefited  by  your  art  collections,  in  whatever  department,  give  them 
to  a  museum  of  art  or  other  public  institution.  No  matter  how  few  they 
are,  or  how  apparently  worthless.  Every  drop  of  water  on  the  mountain 
helps  to  form  the  mill-driving  river. 


PART    VI. 

MARKS  ON  POTTERY  AND  POR- 
CELAIN. 


.  Three  classes  of  marks  found  on  pottery  and  porcelain  are  important:  1.  Fac- 
tory marks ;  2.  Artists'  marks ;  3.  Dates.  These  are  either  painted,  printed,  sten- 
cilled, impressed,  emhossed,  or  scratched  in  the  paste.  Some  factories  used  no  mark. 
At  all  factories  it  was  common  to  mark  only  the  larger  pieces  in  services,  sometimes 
the  sugar-bowl  only,  and  but  one  of  a  set  of  vases.  Frequently  the  mark  was  en- 
tirely omitted.  Workmen's  marks — scratches,  letters,  numbers — are  rarely  impor- 
tant, having  been  made  only  to  identify  work  for  payment  by  the  piece.  Names 
of  special  patterns  on  printed  wares,  and  private  numbers  for  reference  to  factory 
pattern-books,  are  common.  The  same  factory  used  different  marks  at  different 
periods.  Several  marks  sometimes  occur  on  the  same  piece.  One  factory  mark 
indicates  the  maker  of  the  ware,  another  the  place  of  decoration.  So,  too,  a  speci- 
men, as  often  with  Sevres,  has  factory,  artists',  and  gilders'  marks,  each  with  its 
date.  Artists'  signatures  are  sometimes  in  full  on  the  painting,  generally  in  initials, 
monogram,  or  adopted  device,  on  the  bottom  of  the  piece. 

The  marks  in  the  following  tables  are  mostly  fac-similes  from  specimens;  but 
when  painted  or  scratched,  the  form  often  varies  greatly,  and  sometimes  a  mark 
must  be  studied  out  with  hard  labor,  or  even  guessed  at,  by  the  aid  of  characteris- 
tics of  the  work.  New  marks  are  found  from  year  to  year,  both  of  known  and 
unknown  factories.  Thus  our  list  of  marks  on  Sevres  porcelain,  being  the  latest,  is 
the  longest  hitherto  published,  but  will  extend  in  future  works. 

The  same  device  was  often  used  by  different  factories,  and  care  must  be  taken 
in  distinguishing  the  specimens. 

The  mark  is  usually  on  the  bottom  of  the  piece,  sometimes  on  the  bottom  rim, 
occasionally  on  the  side,  as  in  some  pieces  of  Chelsea  and  of  Liverpool  wares. 
Marks,  including  the  names  of  potters  and  of  places,  vary  in  form,  and  it  has  not 
been  regarded  as  necessary  to  give  all  the  forms. 

In  consulting  these  tables,  it  is  important  to  refer  to  the  text  in  the  volume, 
where,  in  many  cases,  information  is  given  concerning  the  marks  of  factories. 

28 


434 


MARKS   ON  POTTERY  OF  ITALY. 


;A*cyHYA 


16 


ITALY.  4:31 


POTTERY   OF  ITALY. 

1-25.  Caffagiuolo.  The  most  frequent  form  of  mark  is  that  seen  in  Nos.  1,  4,  5, 
C,  7,  in  which  a  P  has  a  dash  across  the  upright,  while  the  curved  line  at  top  is 
continued  upward  to  make  an  S,  thus  forming-  a  monogram  which  includes  S. 
P.  F.  (Senatus  Populus  Florentiuus  ?)  or  S.  P.  R.  (Senatus  Populus  Romanus  ?). 
Both  these  inscriptions  are  of  frequent  occurrence  in  Caffagiuolo  decorations. 
The  form  of  this  mark  varies  greatly,  sometimes  being  little  more  than  a  P, 
the  lower  part  crossed  by  a  waving  line.  It  is  found  in  one  instance  on  Da- 
mascus ware. 

3.  Doubtful.     Mr.  Fortnum  says  Faenza.     (S.  K.  Cat.,  p.  492.) 

5.  On  a  plate  also  marked  In  Chaffaggiuolo. 

6.  On  a  plate  also  marked  Cafagioli,  and  on  a  dish  marked  In  Caffagiuollo. 

9.  The  usual  mark,  with  C  or  G,  and  under  it  In  galiano  nell  ano  1547 ;  under  this 
the  artist's  initials,  A  F  /  (ecit).  Galiano  is  a  village  near  Caffagiuolo,  where 
the  artist,  perhaps,  worked. 

11.  An  undcciphered  mark  on  an  early  plate  with  the  Virgin  and  Child.  This  is 
not  certainly  of  Caffagiuolo,  but  possibly  of  Faenza.  (S.  K.  Cat.,  90,  and  Mar- 
ryat,  p.  104.) 

12.  Three  marks,  uncertain.  One  on  a  plate  in  the  collection  of  Baron  Gustave  de 
Rothschild  is  dated  1507. 


43G 


MAIIKS  OX  POTTERY  OF  ITALY. 


21  22  23  <=s 


5> 


30 

X 


*h> 


34 

PISA 


RAFAELto 

&IROLA/WO 

FECIT 

MS        «  fc 

toe 

40 


1^|  fare  ^yfepJ  ^  ™  ^«*f* 


bo^sroRsio 

14X9 


A\ 


ITALY.  437 

21-30.  Caffagiuolo.  Marks  24,  28,  29,  30  are  doubtful.  2G  occurs  in  very  large 
size  on  a  dish  attributed  by  Delange  to  Faenza,  by  Mr.  Fortuum  to  Caffagiuolo. 

31,  32,  33.  Siena.  31  is  on  a  plate  painted  in  blue  "a  porcelan"  and  is  a  mark  of 
Maestro  Benedetto,  chief  potter  artist  there.  32  has  been  mistaken  for  a  mark 
of  Pesaro.  32  and  33  are  also  assigned  to  Benedetto,  but  Mr.  Fortnum  thinks 
them  initials  of  owners  of  the  objects.     See  page  449,  mark  200. 

34.  Pisa.     See  text. 

35.  Unknown.     On  a  box  with  emblems  of  Cosmo  de'  Medici. 

36.  37,  38.  Monte  Lupo.  38  is  on  a  dish  dated  1G63,  and  has  been  assigned  by 
some  to  Monte  Feltro. 

39-47.  Gubbio.  These  are  various  forms  of  the  signature  of  Maestro  Giorgio  An- 
dreoli ;  43  is,  perhaps,  most  frequent.  These  fac-similes  do  not  give  size.  The 
marks  are  frequently  very  large.  The  upper  initials  in  39  are,  perhaps,  those  of 
the  owner. 


t38 


MARKS   OH   POTTERY  OF  ITALY. 


ITAL  V.  439 

47-61.  Gubbio. 

47.  Mark  of  Maestro  Giorgio  in  very  large  size  on  dish  with  bathing  scene,  called 
"Diana  and  her  Nymphs  surprised,  etc.,"  described  in  text,  p.  167. 

48.  A  similar  form  of  mark  was  used  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  on 
goods,  etc.,  by  merchants;  also  found  on  merchants'  seals.  More  commonly  the 
top  forms  a  figure  4.  Perhaps  it  is  a  trade-mark  of  a  merchant.  A  similar 
form  occurring  in  mark  52  is  thought  by  Jacquemart  to  indicate  ecclesiastical 
dignitaries,  or  pharmacies  attached  to  monasteries.  The  mark  48  occurs  on 
several  pieces. 

49.  50.  Maestro  Giorgio. 

51.  G.  A.,  for  Giorgio  Andreoli. 

52.  Maestro  Giorgio,  with  mercantile  or  religious  sign.     Sec  mark  48,  above. 

53.  54.  Maestro  Giorgio  :  some  read  Maestro  Gillio. 

55.  Gubbio,  supposed  later  than  Giorgio. 

56.  On  a  dish  by  Giorgio,  dated  1518. 

59-61.   Marks  assigned  to  Maestro  Vineenzio,  or  Cencio. 


440 


MARKS   ON   POTTERY   OF  ITALY. 


~  64  65  C6 


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cs 

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85 

CONPOLDISCASA 


ITALY.  441 

62.  Gubbio. 

63.  Gubbio.     Mark  of  the  Master  Prestino,  whose  signature  also  occurs  in  full. 

64.  Gubbio.     Probably  Maestro  Yincenzio. 

65.  Gubbio. 

66.  Gubbio  or  Diruta.     Uncertain. 

67.  Gubbio. 

68.  Gubbio.     Jacquemart   tbinks   the  letters   mean   Mater   Gloriosa,  not  Maestro 
Giorgio. 

69.  Gubbio.     Probably  Prestino. 

70.  71,  72,  73.  Marks  found  on  Gubbio  wares. 
74-85.  Castel-Durante. 

74,  76,  77,  78,  79.  Trade-marks,  perhaps  of  dealers,  found  on  Castel-Durante  wares. 
See  above,  No.  48. 

75.  Mr.  Fortnum  thinks  this  probably  the  mark  of  the  owner  of  the  piece. 
81.  Signature  of  Giovanni  Maria,  vasaro,  and  date  12  Sept.,  1508. 

83.  Doubtful.     Castel-Durante  or  Fabriano.     Mark  of  painter  or  owner  (S.  K.  Cat., 
p.  314). 

85.  On  cups,  etc.,  made  of  dust  of  the  Santa  Casa  at  Loretto.     See  text. 

86.  Urbino.     Mark  on  inferior  work.     Mr.  Fortnum  thinks  of  a  young  artist. 


44-2 


MARKS  ON  POTTEBT  OF  ITALY 


£-£o 


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S(m.  Axe  a 


91 


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ITALY.  443 

87-111.  Urbino. 

87.  Attributed  to  Flaminio  Fontana. 

HS.  Unknown  artist,  on  a  plate  with  St.  Luke. 

89.  97.  Nicola  da  Urbino. 

90.  Orazio  Fontana. 

91.  Attributed  by  Passeri  to  Orazio  Fontana,  but  93  is  on  work  much  later. 

92.  Unknown  artist. 

94.  On  work  of  Orazio  Fontana. 

95.  Orazio  Fontana. 

96.  Orazio  Fontana.     The  Greek  Phi  may  be  a  monogram  of  0/  and  the  Delta 
mean  Durantino. 

98.  99,  100,  106.  Signatures  of  Francesco  Xanto. 

101.  On  one  of  the  pieces  of  the  Gonzaga-Este  service,  by  Nicola  da  Urbino. 

102.  On  a  dish  painted  with  St.  Jerome. 

103.  Francesco  Durantino. 

104.  105,  109,  112.   Found  on  Urbino  work. 

107.  Initials  of  Gian.  Maria  Mariani,  dated  1542. 

108.  Attributed  to  Laca  Cambiasi. 

110.  Alfonso  Patanazzi. 

111.  Citta  di  Castello.     On  a  plateau  sgraffiato. 

113.  Viterbo.     Date  1544. 

114,  115,  116,  117.  Diruta. 


444 


MARKS   ON   TOTTERY   OF  ITALY. 


§)  FmivS  nyneri*  fT'fl  J]£)f 


ITALY.  445 

118,  119, 120.  Diruta. 

121.  Fabriano. 

122,  123,  124.  Rome. 

125-141.  Faenza.     125  and  126  are  typical  marks  of  the  Casa  Pirota.     127  is  a 

frequent  mark.  131  is  the  date  1491  between  the  letters  M  and  G,  which  may 
imply  Mater  GJnriosa.  134,  135.  136,  and  144  (next  page),  are  all  of  the  same- 
workshop. 


446 


MARKS  OX  POTTER!  OF  ITALY. 


/ 


,  WW* 

1GS 

biionmllZ  or  Ml 

tA'U  M 


ITALY.  447 

142-156.  Faenza. 

142.  On  a  plate  with  allegorical  subject.     B.  M.  for  Baldasaro  Manara. 

143.  Casa  Pirota.     A  frequent  mark  in  similar  form. 

144.  On  a  plate  representing  Solomon.  Lazari  reads  the  mark  as  G.  I.  0.,  but  Mi'. 
Fortnum  thinks  it  T.  M.  in  antique  letters. 

145.  Doubtful.     Faenza  or  Caffagiuolo. 

155.  Said  to  be  on  a  piece  with  the  name  of  Giovano  of  Palermo,  and  the  words  in 

Faenza.  Doubted  by  Jacquemart. 
157.  Forli.  On  a  plaque  dated  1523. 
158, 159.  Forli.     Signatures  on  Forli  wares  are  known  also  of  Mo  iero  da  Forli^ 

and  Leuchadius  Solobrinus  1564. 

160.  Ravenna. 

161.  In  arimin,     Rimini. 

162.  Rimini. 
163-168.  Venice. 

165.  On  a  plate  from  the  botega  of  Mo  Ludovko.  Other  Venice  pieces  are  marked 
In  Botega  dl  Mo.  Jacomo  da  Pesaro  ;  and  Jo  Stefano  Barccllo  Veneziano  pinx. 

Candiana,  1620,  is  a  mark  on  a  plate.  See  text.  There  is  no  such  place  as  Can- 
diana.     The  work  may  be  Venetian. 


448 


MARKS   ON  POTTERY  OF  ITALY. 


^^ftnU  f  (/<><// 


196  200 


tie 


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ITALY.  449 

169.  Venice. 

170.  On  a  plate  seemingly  Venetian. 

171.  Cornaro. 

172.  Treviso. 

173.  174,  175.  Bassano.  The  Tenia  family.  The  mark  173,  which  is  the  iron 
crown,  is  also  on  other  fabrics. 

176.  Verona.  Illegible  mark,  the  enamel  being  broken.  It  occurs  on  a  plate 
under  the  words  1563  adi  15  zenaro.  Gio  Giovanni  Batista  dafaenza  in  Verona. 
See  text,  p.  175. 

177,  178.  Padua. 

179.  Genoa.     A  light-house,  hanging  out  a  signal. 

180.  Attributed  to  Genoa  by  M.  Demmin. 

181.  Savona.  The  shield  mark  is  drawn  in  various  shapes,  often  with  a  few  dashes 
of  the  brush,  and  is  accompanied  by  a  variety  of  letters. 

182.  Savona. 

183.  Savona.      Gio.  Anton.  Guidobonp. 

184.  Savona. 

185.  Savona.     Solomon's  knot. 

186.  Turin.     Escutcheon  of  Charles  Emanuel,  1638. 

187.  Turin.     Escutcheon  of  Victor  Amadeus,  1713. 

188.  Turin.     Cross  of  Savoy  and  trumpet. 

189.  Maurienne. 

190.  Milan. 

191-192.  Milan.     Felice  CI er ice? 

193.  Milan.     Pasquale  Rubati. 

194.  Milan. 

195.  196.  Lodi. 
197.  Treviso. 
198,199.  Nove. 

200.  Siena.     Initials  of  Campani  ? 

201.  Pesaro.      Casali 'and  Cat i'/ari,  1763. 

202.  San  Quirico.     Arms  of  Chigi.     Dated  1723. 

203.  Naples.     Vases ;  one  inscribed  Paulus  Francus  Brand!  Pinx. 

204.  205,  206,  207.     On  same  class  of  Naples  vases.     See  text,  p.  178. 
208,  209.  Naples.     Bel  Vecchio  fabric,  impressed  marks. 

29 


450  MARES   ON    HARES  OF  ITALY,  PERSIA,  RHODES,  ETC. 


211  212 


214 


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242 


243 


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ITALY,  PERSIA,  ETC.  451 


■210.  Naples.     Attributed  to  Capo-di-Monte. 

211.  Naples.  Giustiniani,  impressed.  Other  marks  of  this  fabric  are  the  name  in 
full ;  the  letter  G,  the  name  with  I.  N.  and  a  vase. 

212.  Attributed  to  Naples  and  to  Castelli.  We  have  it  on  wares  found  in  Germany. 
Mr.  Fortnum  thinks  it  German. 

213,214,215.  Castelli;  213,  Saverio  Grue;  215,  Idborius  Grue. 
216-230.  Unknown  marks  on  Italian  pottery. 

SARACEN  POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN. 

231.  Persia.     Tainted  in  blue  on  a  hard-paste  porcelain  bowl.     (T.-P.  Coll.) 

232.  Unknown.  On  hard-paste  porcelain  bowl.  (T.-P.  Coll.)  Engraved  through 
the  glaze. 

233.  Unknown.  The  square  mark  painted  in  blue,  the  characters  engraved  through 
the  glaze,  on  a  hard-paste  porcelain  bowl.     (T.-P.  Coll.) 

234.  Persia.     In  blue  on  hard -paste  porcelain  bowl  (Coll.  of  G.  Trumbull,  Esq.). 

235.  Persia.     In  blue  on  hard-paste  porcelain  vase.     (Hoe  Coll.) 

236.  Persia.  In  red  on  vase,  apparently  soft-paste  porcelain.  (Hoe  Coll.)  For 
account  of  marks  231  to  236,  see  text,  p.  119. 

237.  Manises,  in  Spain.     On  copper-lustred  ware.     (Chaffers.) 

238.  On  a  Ilispano-Moresque  plate,  fifteenth  century.     (Chaffers.) 

239.  On  a  Ilispano-Moresque  dish,  gold-lustred.      (Chaffers.) 

240.  On  a  Persian  or  Damascus  ware  jug. 

241.  Rhodes.  (liven  by  Marryat  as  found  on  Rhodian  wares,  supposed  to  repre- 
sent the  cross  of  the  Knights. 

242.  Given  by  Mr.  Fortnum  as  on  a  flask  of  "artificial  porcelain-paste,  perhaps  en- 
gobe,"  with  design  eminently  Persian,  but  showing  Chinese  influence,  brought 
from  Persia.     (S.  K.  Cat.,  pp.  8,  13.) 

243.  Persia.      Name  of  a  maker,  llat'nn,  on  Persian  pottery.      (S.  K.  <  !at.,  p.  1  2.) 

A  mark  closely  resembling  the  common  mark  of  Caffagiuolo  (mark  1  of  Italian  pot- 
tery) occurs  on  a  Damascus  ware  bottle  in  Mr.  Franks's  collection.  (S.  K.  Cat., 
p.  13.)     Modern  Persian  fabrics  have  the  names  of  makers  with  dates. 


452 


MARES  ON  POTTERY  OF  FRANCE. 


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FRANCE.  453 


POTTERY   OF  FRANCE. 

1.  On  a  green  enamelled  plate  are  escutcheons  of  arms  of  French  provinces,  and 

the  one  here  given,  which  contains  part  of  the  arms  of  Beauvais  and  the  name 
Masse,  perhaps  of  the  artist.  An  inscription  ends  with  Fait  en  Decembre  1502, 
or  as  M.  Jacquemart  reads,  1511. 

2.  Poitou.     The  goose  of  Thonars,  found  on  a  vase ;  supposed  reference  to  Oiron. 

See  text. 

3.  Avon.     Mark  on  the  Nurse  and  other  figures,  which  were  formerly  attributed  to 

Palissy. 

Rouen.  All  the  other  marks,  which  are  not  numbered,  on  the  page  opposite,  are 
found  on  pottery  of  Rouen.  Many  of  these  are  similar  to  marks  on  Delft. 
The  only  artists'  signatures  known  arc  the  two,  easily  read,  of  Dieul,  who  deco- 
rated faience  a,  la  come. 

Other  marks  painted,  sometimes  rudely,  on  Rouen  ware  are  as  follows  (these  are 
not  in  fac-simile) : 

Ro  Go  G3  DV  Gm.  M 


RD  GL  PP  Mo  HC  Mv 


P.D  GMd  R  DL  HM  WGt 


G.  G  W  S.  Gi  H  T  Mrs  Guillibeaux. 


454 


MARKS   ON  POTTERY  OF  FRANCE. 


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FRANCE.  455 

1,  2,  3.  Lille.     Francois  Boussemart. 

4.  Lille.     Febvrier  and  Boussemart  ? 

5,6.  Lille.     Barthelemi  Dorez,  1709-15.      His  grandson  signed  N.  A.  Dorez,  in 

1748. 
7,8,9.  Lille;  7,  about  1788 ;(?)  8,  Petit? 
10.  Valenciennes.     Louis  Dorez. 
11, 12,  13,  14,  15.   St.  Amand  les  Eaix.     P.  J.  Fauquez. 

16.  Paris.      Claude  Reverend's  mark. 

17,  18.  Paris.     On  ware  resembling  Reverend's. 

19.  Sceaux.  Mark  of  Glot,  who  also  marked  with  the  word  Sceaux.  Prior  to 
1772  the  mark  had  been  S  X. 

20.  Sceaux  ?  or  Bourg  la  Reine  ?     Doubtful. 

21.  Sceaux.     Glot's  period. 

22.  Bourg  la  Peine. 

23.  St.  Cloud.      Trou's  mark. 

24.  25,  26.  Sincenv.     25  is  signature  of  Pelleve,  director. 

27,  28,  29,  30,  31,  32.  Aprey.  The  factory  monogram  Ap,  with  initials  of  Jarry 
and  other  artists. 

33.  Mathaut. 

34,  35.  Niderviller.     Beyerle  period.     The  mark  is  B  N  in  monogram. 

36,  37,  38,  39.  Niderviller.  Custine  period.  These  marks  must  not  be  confounded 
with  Kronenburg,  or  Ludwigsburg. 

40.  Sarreguemines.      Utzchneider  <&  Co. 

41.  Strasbourg.      Charles  Hannong. 

42.  43,  44.  Strasbourg.     Paul  Antoine  Hannong. 
45,  46,  47.  Strasbourg.     Joseph  Adam  Hannong. 

48.  Strasbourg  or  Ilagenau.     Possibly  Balthasar  Hannong. 

49.  Premieres,  in  Burgundy.  ./.  Lavalle.  Other  marks  are  J  L  P  in  a  script 
monogram. 

50.  Meillonas.     Madame  de  Marron. 

51.  52.   Varages. 

53,  54,  55.  Taverne.      Gaze,  director. 

56-86.  Moustiers.  The  marks  including  a  monogram  of  o  l  are  attributed  to 
Joseph  Olery.  Some  are.  his,  but  Jacquemart  doubts  many.  86  is  supposed 
signature  of  Fouquc,  successor  to  Clarissy.  Names,  perhaps,  of  Spanish  artists — 
Soliva,  Miguel  Vilax,  Fo  Gianzel,  Cros — occur.  A  potter.  Fa-rat,  about  1760 
signs  his  name.  Pierre  Fournier  signs  work  dated  1775;  Antoine  Guichard,  in 
1763  ;  Thion,  in  the  last  century.  Moustiers  appeal's  as  ;l  mark  written  and 
also  applied  through  pricked  points.  Viry,  painter,  signs  a  plate;  sec  text,  p. 
200. 


456 


MARKS   ON  POTTERY  OF  FRANCE. 


87  88 


89  9C 


"■  *~  ~-  '.»  91  y>J  Si) 

^  Fd  Td  f  <Jtc.  *-**t>s**»>  fig 

M  97  -  98  QQ  100 

9S  96  1  •  •  101 

'*  'OJ/-  $r  He  +  R  H  ft 

102  1°4  JOk  106         107 

— ^   •  .       103      J.  L"5        -__      «_         108  109 

•JW  v?  <fc    B-   F.  I  M  i 

HI  ,,o  113 

)Z    ft     J'ZAouiv&tyftfiuof^   ELF      C& 

-1  U  liTzz  ~i6/tf"         /J 


115 


US 


KB    -htl     "L    T)"^  E -Borne   r  l 

551  ?^     TA*Q    *«"»* 


121 

•F.R1734     »j    • 


X2U 

]£  .Borne 


122 


123 


imoaeo-*    ^o" 

^  18      ma' 


•^jQ 


126 


J74J 


y 


awsseai<__ 


127 


12S 


<)6  Coytiadt 
ctntudrt 

A 

^ril  133  ™  135  /-*  137 

CB     ;?;     <5    A      F.GT-1661 


132 


-AN  a.  J£ 

J?.    £- 


<sp 


134 


136 


1780  142  »G  .    ~     . 

-f-  "Fait  par  ODE,  Ano  176] /'  ±£         H     M     I 


146 


FRANCE.  457 


87-95.  Moustiers.     87  and  88  are  marks  of  Feraud,  potter.     95  is  probably  Olery. 

The  other  marks  are  uncertain. 
96-98.  Marseilles.     The  fleur-de-lis  is  attributed  to  Savy  after  1777. 
99-102.  Marseilles.     J.  G.  Robert. 
103,  104.  Marseilles.      Veuve  Perriri. 

105.  Marseilles.     A.  Bonnefoy. 

106.  Marseilles.     ./.  Fauchier. 

107.  Marans.     J.  P.  Roussencq. 

108.  109.  Marans. 

110.  Renac.     (Jacquemart.) 

111.  Orleans. 

112-123.  Nevers.  112  is  the  earliest  known  signature;  113,  Denis  Lefebvre; 
114,  Jacques  Bourdu;  115,  116,  Henri  Borne  on  statuettes;  117,  Jacques 
Seigne;  119,  Dominique  Comrade,  third  of  the  name,  1650-72;  120,  Etienne 
Born;  121,  Francois  Rodriguez;  122,  Nicholas  Viode  ;  (?)  123,  from  the  Con- 
rade  arms. 

124.  Limoges.     Massie. 

125.  La  Tour  d'Aigues. 

126.  Avisseau,  modern  potter  at  Tours  (died  1861). 
127-146.  Unknown  marks  on  French  pottery. 


4:>s 


MASKS  ON  POTTERY  OF  FRANCE. 


147 


*V    n    l     -II-    i    J. 


153 


155 


156 


158 


M      mco^HV      O'vTo? 


OS      I^^AW       ^        £       -^ 


tffc 


ICG 


167 


1CS 


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po 


PR 


173 


ili: 


179 

VM 


171 


B. 


172 

R 


1\.B 


174 


RL 


177 


17S 


5-  O.fv 


ISO 


1S1 


1S2 


W 


•P- 


FRANCE. 


459 


147-183.  Unknown  marks  found  on  French  pottery.     On  a  basin  is  the   mark 
ALEX  1*724.     On  a  bas-relief  is  the  name  ./.  Alliot. 


460       MARES   ON  POTTERY  OE  BELGIUM  AND  HOLLAND. 


£ 


13 


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DC 

V> 


CO 


B.L 


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14  16  n 

S '>  ^      ^>  Co 

(720 


1-6-8-0         J^  G 


22 


19 


20 


Mi 


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Mi. 


27 


26 


J? 


28 


23 


54 


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IDM 


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xr6,»±'it 


'(Stiiiya^  WVDB 


BELGIUM  AND  HOLLAND.  461 


POTTERY  OF  BELGIUM. 

1-3.  Tournay.     Marks,  probably,  of  Pcterynck. 

4.  Tervueren. 

5.  Malines.     Attributed  by  Jacquemart. 

6.  Bruges.     Henri  Pulinx. 

7.  Luxembourg.     Mark  of  the  brothers  Boch  before  the  French  Revolution. 

8.  Luxembourg.     Subsequent  mark,  impressed. 

9.  10.  Luxembourg. 

11-19.  Unknown  marks  on  Flemish  pottery. 

POTTERY  OF  HOLLAND. 

20.  Amsterdam,  1780-83.     Har  tog  v.  Latin. 
21-40.  Delft. 

21.  Samuel  Piet  Roerder. 

22.  23,  24.   Suter  van  der  Even,  1580. 

28.  Factory  with  sign  of  Be  Metaalc  Pot,  1639. 

29,  30.  Be  Paauw  (The  Peacock),  1651. 

31.  Jacobus  de  Milde,  1764. 

32.  Martinus  Gouda. 

33.  Q.  Kleynoven,  1680. 

34.  Cornelius  Keyser,  Jacobus  Pynaker,  and  Adrian  Pynaker,  1680. 

37.  Jan  Jansz  Kuylich,  1680. 

38.  Johannes  Mesch,  1680. 

39.  T  Fortuyn  (The  Fortune),  1691. 

40.  Widow  of  Pieter  van  der  Briek 


462  MARKS  ON  POTTERY  OF  HOLLAS I>. 


41  42 

•*  43  45 


IB    I?-     *13o     A.     M.       IDA      ®I>V>D 


"  <y)  ^  $  WD  *TQ 


55 

54 

DEX 
if 

Z 

:DEX. 

• 

r 

IHD 

57 

Hooren 

5S 

59 

60 

B.  B.  S. 

01 

aw 

62 

GVC 

63 

HVMD 


/*  fcf  »  * 


00  TO  n  p^  .        ~>  .  ? 


73 

'\puyrt 

74 

75 

De  Blompot 

76 

19 

77 

D.  S.  K. 

78 

80 
70 

81 

W.  V.  P. 

HOLLAND.  468 


41-81.  Marks  deposited  in  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  Delft,  in  1764,  by  potters,  desig- 
nating- their  shop  names.     These  are  not  always  given  in  fac-simile. 
41-45.  De  Witte  Ster  (The  White  Star).     A.  Kielle. 
46.  In  der  Vergulde  Boot  (The  Gilded  Boat).     Johannes  der  Appel. 
47-49.  De  Roos  (The  Rose).     Dirk  van  der  Does. 

50.  De  Klaauw  (The  Claw).     Lambertus  Sanderus. 

51,  52.  De  Drie  Klokken  (The  Three  Bells).      W.  van  der  Does. 

53-56.  De  Griekse  A  (The  Greek  A).     J.  T.  Dextra.     1765,  the  works  passed  to 
Jacobus  Haider  Adriaensz  (AI.  56). 

57.  De  Drie  Porceleyne  Astonnen  (The  Three  Porcelain  Barrels).     Hendrick 
van  Hoorn. 

58,  59.  De   Romeyn   (The   Roman).     Petrus  van  Marum.     The   same   year   the 
manufactory  passed  into  the  hands  of  Jan  can  der  Kloot  Jansz  (AI.  59). 

60.  Tjongue  Moriaans  Hofft  (The  Young  Moor's  Head).     Widow  of  Peter  Jan 

van  der  Hag  en. 
61-63.  In  T'oude  Moriaans  Hofft  (The  Old  Moor's  Head).      Geertruy  Verstelle. 
64,  65.  De  Porcelein  Byl  (The  Porcelain  Hatchet).     Justus  Bromver.     Occurs 

frequently. 
66,  67.  De  Drie  Porceleyne  Fleschjes  (The  Three  Porcelain  Bottles).     Hugo 

Bronwer. 
68-70.  T'hart  (The  Stag),     Hendrik  ran  Middeldyk. 
71.  De  Twee  Scheepjes  (The  Two  Ships).     Anth.  Pennis. 
72-74.  De  Porceleyne  Schootel  (The  Porcelain  Dish).     Johannes  van  Duyn. 

75.  De  Vergulde  Blompot  (The  Gilded  Flower-pot).     P.  Verhurg.     The  mark  is 
not  fac-simile. 

76.  De  Porcelyn  Fles  (The  Porcelain  Bottle).     Picter  van  Doome. 

77.  De  Dubbelde  Schenkkan  (The  Double  Pitcher).     Thomas  Spaandonck. 
78-80.  De  Lampetkan  (The  Ewer).     AVidow  of  Gerardus  Brouwer. 

81.  De  Twe  Wildemans  (The  Two  Savages).     AVidow  of  Willem  ran  Seek. 


4»i4: 


UNKNOWN  MARKS   ON  POTTERY  OF  HOLLAND. 


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iz 


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2 


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JB       26 


J 


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22  £. 
VA 


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Ml  8o 


WC       VJ^ 


HOLLAND.  465 


UNKNOWN   MARKS   ON   POTTERY   OF   HOLLAND. 

All  the  marks  on  the  opposite  page  are  found  on  pottery  apparently  of  Delft ;  but 
their  signification  is  unknown.  It  is  important  to  note  that  similar  marks  are 
found  on  wares  of  Rouen,  and  other  factories.  The  collector  will  exercise  judg- 
ment as  to  paste  and  style  of  decoration  before  assigning  specimens,  and  will 
frequently  find  it  impossible  to  decide  where  a  piece  was  made. 

30 


466  MARKS  ON  POTTERY  OF  SWITZERLAND  AND  GERMANY. 


B        z       i^B 


Maifbias 
RoSa 


3J 


BK 


o. 


loss       !w°£-     „>r 

J  ii 

a 


12 


13 


15 


16 


17 


@ 


<£- 


d, 


C'-ICoxc/enluAfi.  CK--  V^  —   ^  ^ 

2C 

d.n  tiny  Oifc  eTC^      .         H    k  i0 


33 


i-EM 


e   *2   «£«  fg§g    k 

S       MY  »'»        J750        y 


28 

P 


/^  35  •  37  3S 


43 


-in 


0 


IT 


SWITZERLAND   AND   GERMANY.  46 1 


POTTERY   OF  SWITZERLAND. 
1,  2.  Zurich. 
6.   Winterthur.     On  an  ecritoire.     Jacquemart. 

POTTERY  OF  GERMANY. 

4.  Anspaeh  (Bavaria). 

5,  6,  7,  8,  9.  Baireuth.     Sometimes  the  name  in  full. 

10,11,12.  Frankenthal.  10  and  11  are  marks  of  Paul  A.  Hannong;  12,  of 
Joseph  A.  Hannong-.  It  is  not  possible  to  distinguish  the  first  mark  from  Han- 
nong's  when  at  Strasbourg. 

13.  Goggingen,  near  Augsburg,  established  about  1750. 

14.  Harburg.     Initials  of  Johann  Schaper. 

15.  16,  17.  Hochst.  15  has  the  G  for  Geltz  ;  16  the  Z  for  Zeschinger;  17  is  the 
wheel  alone,  the  arms  of  Mayence,     See  p.  487,  mark  54. 

18.  Poppelsdorf.  Wessel's  manufactory ;  impressed.  Also  found  impressed  with 
the  name  Mettlach  on  pottery  of  that  place. 

19,  20,  21,  22,  23.  Nuremberg.  M.  Demmin  gives  a  monogram  of  II  C  D,  and 
date  1550,  as  on  a  stove.  Gluer,  probably  an  artist,  signs  a  dish  with  Nurnberg 
1723.  Plates  are  signed  G.  F.  Greber  Anno  1729  Nuremberg.  Stroebel  sio'ns 
a  bell,  with  date  1724,  and  a  dish  painted,  with  date  1730.  A  stove  of  green 
tiles,  with  religious  subjects,  has  the  signature  of  Hans  Kraut,  and  date  1578. 
Hans  Kraut  was  the  grejit  potter  of  Willingen. 

24.  schreitzheim. 

25,  26,  27.  Stralsund. 

28  to  43.  Unknown  marks  on  German  pottery. 


468  MARES,  ETC.,  OF  GERMANY,  SWEDEN,  DENMARK,  SPAIN,  PORTUGAL. 


it 


50  51  52  53  ,. 

4U  '"'  54 


56 

58 


sw^V/       ^— 


63 
61 


62 


•*¥f$    ^its.   ^:    "T  » 


M 


v  w  ffi  «« 


-ffi-  ^^  U/ULf  CT 


72  73 

69  7!  *^>       r^fK 


7S 
74  75  76  77  Clf  79 

f    ft-   ¥  !•*  **-  i 

S3 

80  81  82  g  84 


GERMANY,  SWEDEN,  DENMARK,  SPAIN,  PORTUGAL.  469 

44-56.  Unknown  marks  on  German  pottery. 


POTTERY  OF  SWEDEN,  ETC. 

57-62.  Rorstrand.  61  and  62  are  probably  signatures  of  Arfinger,  according  to 
Mrs.  Palisser.  Chaffers  gives  ;i  mark,  Storkhulm  22,  8.  1 75  L  I)  H  B,  as  of  the 
factory  after  Rorstrand  was  united  to  Stockholm.  The  marks  include  the  date, 
price,  and  signatures  of  artists.  Stockholm  is  found,  and  also  Rorstrand,  im- 
pressed. 

63.  Rorstrand,  or  Marieberg,  or  Kiel  I 

64-69.  Mariebekg. 

70.  Swedish? 

71.  KlJNERSBERG. 

72.  Kiinersberg '. 

Gustafsberg,  1820  to  1860.     The  mark  is  the  name  with  an  anchor. 
Helsinburg.     Given  by  Mr.  Chaffers  as  on  stone-wares,  made  from  1770. 
73-79.  Kiel. 

POTTERY   OF   SPAIN   AND  PORTUGAL. 

80,  81.  Alcora. 

82,  83.  Attributed  to  Seville. 

84,  85.  Lisbon. 

Russia  and  Poland.     For  marks  on  pottery  of  Russia  and  Poland,  see  p.  491. 


170         MARKS    ON   PORCELAIN   OF  ITALY,  SPAIN,  AND   PORTUGAL. 


.m  l  JJjL 


is 


23 


29 


M 


14 


¥     A 


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24 


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* 


*        il[£        $6 


%£ 


17 


V-F 


^ 


AEW 


21 


sec 


28 


jflg*     ft.       N 


X      * 


32 


30 


VA 


33  34 

v        v 

DG 


BG 


+ 


MARKS   ON   PORCELAIN. 


PORCELAIN   OF  ITALY,  SPAIN,  AND  PORTUGAL. 

1.  Florence.     On  Medicean  porcelain.     The  arms  of  the  Medici,  and  initials  of 

Franciscus  Medici  Magnus  Etrurise  Dux  Secundus. 

2.  Florence.     On  Medicean  porcelain.     Dome  of  the  Cathedral. 

3.  Tablet  held  by  a  lion,  in  the  decoration  of  a  bowl.     See  text. 

4.  5,  6,  7.  Doccia,  near  Florence. 

8,  9,  10,  11.  Le  Nove.     10  and  11  are  signatures  of  Gio.  B.  Antonibon. 

1.2,  13.  Venice.      Vezzi ;  impressed,  or  in  red. 

14,  15,  16.  Venice.  Cozzi  ;  in  red,  bine,  or  gold.  This  mark  must  be  distin- 
guished from  that  of  Chelsea  in  England. 

17.  Venice. 

18-26.  Naples;  Capo-di-Monte  factory.  18  is  supposed  to  be  the  earliest  mark, 
in  blue.  The  fleur-de-lis  was  also  used  at  the  Buen  Retiro  factory  in  Madrid,  as 
given  below.  21,  22,  23,  24,  are  marks  of  Ferdinand  IV.  in  and  after  1759. 
The  crowned  N  is  often  reversed  in  the  mark.  The  marks  are  sometimes  in 
color,  sometimes  impressed. 

Giustiniani  of  Naples  made  hard-paste  porcelain,  using  the  same  marks  as  on  pot- 
tery;  see  p.  451. 

27-31.  Madrid.  Marks  of  the  Buen  Retiro  factory.  This  factory  was  an  out- 
growth of  Capo-di-Monte  in  Naples,  and  used  the  fleur-de-lis  mark  also.  27  and 
28  are  the  cipher  of  Charles  III.     29  is  M,  for  Madrid. 

32.  Vista  Allegre,  near  Oporto,  Portugal. 

33,  34,  35.  Turin,  Italy ;  Vineuf  factory  of  Dr.  Gionetti,  impressed  or  scratched. 
The  cross  is  also  sometimes  accompanied  by  scratched  lines,  forming  VN  in 
monogram. 


47-2 


MASKS   ON  PORCELAIN   OF  SEVMES. 


8 

JL    ^ 


M.ImpIe 
(fe  Sevres. 


Jtvres 
27 


29 


^ 


14 


in  5' 


** 


<5£vRS$ 


20 


25 

&v.qp  W 


V3E' 


so 


M, 


$  5 


10 


'€©"      iJeyreJ 


VI 


M.Nre- 
d  p  Sevres. 


27 

$l»l|j52 

33 


36 


Pe')^< 


2-2 


Jevres 

2S 


23 


Sevres 
30 


28 


swa 


31 


LS-72. 

32 


llr*  tvxch* 


sfivitES.  473 

PORCELAIN   OF   SEVRES. 

1.  Vincennes.     The  interlaced  double  L,  the  initial  of  the  king's  name,  was  adopt- 

ed by  the  Vincennes.  factory  shortly  after  its  foundation,  and  used  till  175:3. 
The  mark,  unaccompanied  by  other  letters,  is  rarely,  if  ever,  found  on  porcelain 
made  at  Sevres.  After  the  removal  of  the  factory  to  Sevres,  this  mark,  accom- 
panied with  date  letters,  as  hereafter  explained,  continued  the  typical  mark  of 
the  factory  down  to  the  Revolution. 

2.  Vincennes.     The  mark  was  usually  in  this  form,  with  a  dot  in  the  monogram. 

Marks  1  and  2  should  be  found  only  on  pieces  made  prior  to  1753. 

3.  Vincennes  and  Sevres.     In  1753,  at  Vincennes,  the  system  of  dating  by  letters 

of  the  alphabet  was  adopted,  A  being  1753,  B  1754,  etc.  See  Table  of  Marks 
used  to  indicate  Bates.  The  factory  was  removed  to  Sevres  in  1756.  A,  B,  C, 
D,  therefore,  date  wares  of  Vincennes.  D  also  dates  work  at  Sevres.  The  date 
letter  is  placed  either  within  or  outside  of  the  monogram,  and  is  sometimes  a 
capital  and  sometimes  a  small  letter. 

4.  The  crown  was  adopted  over  the  monogram  as  the  mark  of  hard-paste  porcelain 

after  its  introduction.  Forms  of  this  mark  arc  5,  6,  and  10,  showing  accompa- 
nying signatures  of  artists.  Thus,  mark  10  includes  the  factory  mark,  the  de- 
vice of  the  artist  Vieillard,  and  the  date  DD,  1781.  This  mark  on  a  service 
in  the  T.-P.  collection  has  also  the  mark  of  another  artist,  Baudoin,  on  each 
piece. 

7.  The  letter  Z  having  been  reached  in  1777,  double  letters  were  used  thereafter, 

AA  being  1778,  etc.  A  difference  of  opinion  exists  as  to  whether  the  letter  J 
was  used  for  1762,  but  the  best  authorities  now  agree  that  it  was  used. 

8,  9.   In  the  Republican  period  the  royal  initial  was  abandoned,  and  the  mark  R.  F., 

for  Republique  Franfaise,  was  adopted  (1792-1800),  always  accompanied  by 
the  word  Sevres.  The  R.  F.  was  in  monogram,  as  in  mark  8,  or  in  one  of  the 
forms  in  mark  9.     Dates  were  not  used  from  1792  to  1801. 

11.  About  L800  the  word  Sevres  was  used  alone,  Avithout  the  R.  F.  It  was  usually 
in  a  form  similar  to  mark  11,  but  varied  as  made  by  different  hands.  This 
mark  was  in  use  from  1800  till  the  end  of  1802. 

12.  In  the  Consular  period,  1803,  the  mark  12,  for  Manufacture  Rationale,  was 
used,  stencilled  in  red. 

13.  In  the  Imperial  period,  beginning  May  8th,  1S04,  mark  13,  for  Manufacture 
Imperiale,  was  adopted,  and  used  till  1809,  stencilled  in  red. 

14.  The  imperial  eagle  was  adopted  as  the  mark  in  this  form  in  1810,  printed  in 
red,  and  continued  in  use  till  the  abdication,  in  1814.  hate  marks  were  used 
from  1801,  for  which  see  Marks  used  to  indicate  Dates,  p.  481. 

15.  Mark  of  the  period  of  Louis  XVIII.,  used  from  May,  1814,  to  September,  1824, 
the  date  indicated  by  the  last  two  figures  of  the  year.  This  mark  was  printed 
in  blue. 


474  SJSFBES. 

10,  17,  18,  19.  Marks  used  in  the  reign  of  Charles  X.,  from  1H2±  to  1828,  printed 
in  blue;  the  figures  under  the  mark  indicating  the  year  of  the  century. 

20,21.  Marks  used  in  the  reign  of  Charles  X.,  in  1829  and  1830.  Mark  20  was 
used  on  decorated  wares;  21  was  used  on  pieces  which  were  gilded  only. 

22.  This  mark  was  used  only  in  1830,  under  Louis  Philippe. 

23.  Used  from  1831  to  November,  1834,  under  Louis  Philippe. 

24.  Used  from  November,  1834,  to  July,  1835. 

25.  The  cipher  of  Louis  Philippe,  used  from  July,  1835,  to  1848. 
20.  Used  under  the  Republic  from  1848  to  1852. 

27.  Used  under  the  Empire  of  Louis  Napoleon,  from  1852  to  1854. 

28.  Cipher  of  Louis  Napoleon,  used  from  1854  to  1872. 

29.  30.  These  marks  have  been  used  in  addition  to  the  factory  mark  since  July, 
1872,  usually  printed  in  red. 

31,  32.  The  letter  S  with  the  date  of  the  year  of  the  century,  in  an  oval,  was 
adopted  in  1848  as  the  factory  mark  on  all  pieces,  and  continues  in  use.  On 
white  wares,  sold  without  decoration,  it  is  cut  across  by  a  scratch  through  the 
glaze.  It  is  printed  in  pale  green.  Mr.  Chaffers  says  it  has  been  used  on  white 
wares  since  1833.  Many  modern  pieces  with  this  mark  cut  across  are  decorated 
by  amateurs  and  others. 

33.  Marks  of  this  kind,  containing  names  of  chateaux  or  palaces,  were  placed  on 
pieces,  table  services,  etc.,  made  for  use  in  the  royal  residences  thus  indicated. 

34.  Monogram  of  Catharine  II.  of  Russia,  in  flowers,  laurels,  etc.,  on  a  service  made 
for  her.     See  text. 

35.  36.  Visa  of  Alexander  Brongniart,  the  director,  occurring  on  several  fine  pieces 
in  the  T.JP.  collection.  It  does  not  appear  as  an  intentional  mark,  but  as  if  the 
artist's  work  had  been  submitted  to  the  director,  and  he  had  written  on  the  back 
with  a  lead-pencil  Va  Alex  B  or  Vu  B.  In  the  firing  this  has  become  a  yel- 
lowish mark  with  some  metallic  iridescence. 

37.  Marks  stencilled  in  red  on  a  plate  dated  1811,  decorated  with  a  view  of  the 
Palace  of  St.  Cloud,  signed  LeheJ.  The  visa  of  Brongniart  in  form  of  mark  3G 
is  also  on  the  plate.     (T.-P.  Coll.) 

Many  bard-paste  specimens  of  Sevres  which  originally  bore  the  marks  of  the  Im- 
perial period  prior  to  1814  are  found  with  the  letters  M  Imple,  or  the  eagle, 
ground  off  on  a  wheel,  leaving  only  the  words  de  Sevres  or  Sevres.  The 
wheel  has,  of  course,  removed  the  glaze. 


MARKS   OF  SUVBES  ARTISTS. 


475 


MARKS  USED  BY  PAINTERS,  DECORATORS,  AND  GILDERS 

AT  SEVRES. 


FIRST   PERIOD.      1153-1199. 


■•tyj      Aloncle — birds-,  animals,  emblems, 


i  1  nteaume — landscape,  animals. 

cJ>o        Anna >td — birds,  flowers,  etc. 
sf  ^  A_  Asselin — portraits,  miniatures,  etc. 

'R  Avbert  (senior) — flowers. 

/$u        Ballhj  (son) — flowers. 

==         Bardet — flowers. 
0$  Barre — detached  bouquets. 

<TS'j         Ban-td — garlands,  bouquets. 
/CX  yj      Baudovn — ornaments,  friezes,  etc. 
Becquet — flowers,  etc. 


Hi  rtrand — detached  bouquets. 

Bienfait — gilding. 

Bind — detached  bouquets. 

Binef,  Madame  (nee  SojjIuc  Chanou ) 
— flowers. 

Boucher — flowers,  garlands,  etc. 

Bouchet  —  landscape,    figures,    orna- 
ments. 


\[*        Bouillat — Sowers,  landscapes. 

Sri         Boulanger — detached  bouquets. 

/Boulanger  (son) — pastoral  subjects, 
children. 

A\y.        Bididon — detached  bouquets. 

I  Burnet,  }r<td<tni(  (nee  Manon  Buteux) 

7tl  D  — flowers. 


T. 


J^[  Jj      Bum  I,  Madame — another  form. 

\  >*        Buteux  (senior) — flowers,  emblems, 
%}^         etc. 

Buteux  (elder  son) — detached  bou- 
quets, etc. 

Buteux  (younger  son) — pastoral  sub- 
jects, children. 

Capel — friezes. 


3- 
A 

f 
S. 

/>  Castel — landscapes,  hunts,  birds. 

W  Caton — pastoral   subjects,  children, 

7*  bin  Is. 

f\F  Catrice — flowers,  detached  bouquets. 

J  Chabry — miniatures,  pastoral  sub- 

V  fh  »  jects. 

1  (ft  CJianou,  Madame  (nee  Julie  Durosey) 

J  „*/•  —flowers. 

6  <4°  «  Chapuis  (elder)— flowers,  birds,  etc. 

A  /»  Chapuis  (younger)  —  detached  bou- 

Q  quets. 


Cardin — detached  bouquets. 
Carrier — flowers. 


J&Z*       Chauvaux  (father) — gilding 


Chauvaux    (son)  —  detached    bou- 
quets, gilding. 

Chevalier — flowers,  bouquets,  etc. 
<  '/mis?/,  I)i  — flowers,  arabesques. 


Chulot  —  emblems,     flowers,     ara- 
besques. 


Cyy*  Commelin — detached  bouquets,  gar- 

•  ''«  *  lands. 

r>  CornaiUe  —  flowers,   detached   bou- 

W  quets. 


4:76 


MARKS   OF  SEVRES  ARTISTS. 


§  Couturier — gilding. 

yv  Bieu — Chinese,  Chinese  flowers,  gild- 
/»'\  ing,  etc. 

■%fi  Dodin — figure,  various  subjects,  por- 
J\»  traits. 

£?)f?  Drand— Chinese,  gilding. 

Okf  Dubois — flowers,  garlands,  etc. 

Cj\  DusoUe — detached  bouquets,  etc. 

-yv  j  u^  Dutanda — detached    bouquets,  gar- 
_I7    JL  lands. 

JC^  Bhians — birds,butterflies,  landscapes. 

t*  Falot — arabesques,  birds,  butterflies. 

*  i  Fontaine — emblems,  miniatures,  etc. 

CO        Font  J I  tan — gilding,  etc. 

\/         Foure — flowers,  bouquets,  etc. 

T/^jC.       Fritsch — figures,  children. 

i 

Tz&jy      Gauthier — landscape  and  animals. 


Henrion  —  garlands,  detached  bou- 
quets. 


Uericouri — garlands,  detached  bou- 
quets. 

Hilken  —  figures,  pastoral  subjects, 
etc. 


Jitbin — gilding. 


La  Roche  —  flowers,  garlands,  em- 
blems. 


y  Fumez — detached  bouquets. 


Fumes, — another  form. 


G 


a, mst — figure  and  genre. 


(!i  ii'm — flowers,  garlands,  friezes,  etc. 


j        Gerard — pastoral   subjects,  minia- 
£/L  ♦        tures. 

Madame  (nee    Vautrin)  — 


r_x-    Gerard,  Moa 
flowers. 

jCl         Girard — arabesques,  Chinese,  etc. 

t    ' '"" B ' 

*&£        Gremoni — garlands,  bouquets. 
jT  Grison — gilding. 


fr- 
ith. 

1J  Howry — flowers,  etc. 

MlLm.         llmnj — flowers,  detached  bouquets 
ZJ %        Joyau — detached  bouquets,  etc. 

hr 

\    hi       La  Rodie — another  form. 

|  JSL-       Le  Bel  (elder) — figures  and  flowers 

dU  W.       quets,  e 

_/,£         Lecot — Chinese,  etc. 
T    \ji        Lecot — another  form. 
^^J  Ledoux — landscape  and  birds. 

df/H^      !■•   Guay — gilding. 
~LM         ^    Ghiay — another  form. 

fLeguay — miniatures,  children,   Chi- 
nese. 

r  Levi  (father)  —  flowers,  birds,  ara- 

^Jj  crJ-i      besques. 

-^  Levi,  FeUx — flowers,  Chinese. 

fF\     f/\   Maqueret,  Madami   (nee  Bouillat) — 

JiJS   ,|"""- 

j\\r\      Massy — groups  of  flowers,  garlands. 

0         Merault  (elder)— friezes. 

r\         Merault  (younger)— bouquets,  gar- 

y  lands. 

XMicavd — flowers,  bouquets,  medall- 
ions. 


ounger)  —  garlands,   bou- 
s,  etc. 

Leandre — pastoral  subjects,  minia- 
tures. 


MAKES   OF  StFBES  ARTISTS. 


477 


m. 
M 

ok 

h 

y 

££. 

P.T. 

I 
P-7 

PH. 


HP. 


Michel — detached  bouquets. 

Mbiron — detached   bouquets  ;    also 
another  form  used  by  Michel. 

Mongcnot  —  flowers,  detached    bou- 
quets. 

Mbrin — marine,  military  subjects. 


Mutel — landscape. 

Niquet — detached  bouquets,  etc. 

Nix  I — (lowers,  ornaments. 

NouaiUiier,  Madame  (nee  Sophie  Du- 
rosy) — flowers. 

Parpette  —  flowers,  detached  bou- 
quets. 

Parpeite,  Dlle.  Louison — flowers. 

Pajou — figure. 
Petit — flowers. 

Pfeiffer — detached  bouquets. 

Pierre  (elder) — flowers,  bouquets. 

Pierre  (younger)  —  bouquets,  gar- 
lands. 

Philippine  (elder) — pastoral  sub- 
jects, children,  etc. 

Pithou  (elder) — portraits,  historical 
subjects. 

Pithou  (younger) — figures,  flowers, 
ornaments. 

Pouillot — detached  bouquets. 

Prevost — gilding. 

Raux — detached  bouquets. 


"VV-        Rocket — figure,  miniatures,  etc. 
s£f      Posset — landscape,  etc. 


Roussel — detached  bouquets. 
■     *k      Schradre — birds,  landscape,  etc. 


Sinsson — flowers,  groups,  garlands, 
etc. 


*  •  Sion.r   (elder) — detached    bouquets, 

#  #  garlands. 

^^  Sioux  (younger) — flowers,  garlands. 

/\  Tabary — birds,  etc. 


* 


Taillandier  —  detached      bouquets, 
garlands. 


Tandart  —  groups  of  flowers,  gar- 
•  •  •  lands. 

\  »  \       Tardi — detached  bouquets,  etc. 
9  •  •  &     Theodore — gilding. 


Tim;  net   (father) — flowers,  medall- 
ions, groups,  etc. 

'Hun mi  (son) — ornaments,  friezes, 
etc. 


\/j         Vande — gilding,  flowers. 

%J^f        I  ravasseur — a  rabesques. 
^rj^Jf    1  "a  illard — emblems,  ornaments,  etc. 
^,000    Vincent — gilding. 

MM        Xroicct — arabesques,  flowers,  etc. 
i  Yvernel — landscape,  birds. 


SECOND  PERIOD.      1800-1874. 
*J     iS        Andre,  Jules — landscape  tl 

Ur         Apoil — figures,  subjects,  etc.  T^   A 

/*/    Ar*     Apoil,  Madame — figure.  *\j 


Archelais — ornament  worker  (pairs 
siir  pates). 


Avisst — ornament  worker. 
Barbin — ornaments. 


1:78 


MARES   OF  SEVRES  ARTISTS. 


B 

(B.v 
*£ 

BX 

3£ 

G$ 

J.C 
LC 

f.e. 
e.c. 
ex 

JO 

2D 

S>2 

&.$ 
b.f. 

US 
CD 

D.t 
3>c. 


Barre — flowers. 

Harriot — figure. 

Beranger — figure. 

Blanchard — decorator. 

Blanchard,  Alex. — ornament  worker. 

Boitel — gilding. 

Bonnuit — decorator. 

BouUL  mier,  Antoine — gilding. 

Boullem ier  (elder) — gilding. 
BouUemier  (son) — gilding. 
Jliili  ax — flowers. 

Qabau — flowers. 

( 'apronnier — gilding. 

Celos — ornament  worker  (pates  sur 
pates). 

Charpentier — decorator. 

Charrin,  Dlle.  Fanny — figures,  sub- 
jects, portraits. 

Constant — gilding. 

Coiistantin — figure. 

Dammouse — figure,  ornament  (pates 

sur  pates). 

"David — decorator. 
Delafosse — figure. 

Davignon — landscape. 

Desperate — ornaments. 
/),  rick&im  Uler — decorator. 
Develly — landscape  and  genre. 

]),  ,ilsr]i — ornaments. 

Didii  r — ornaments,  etc. 
Didii r — another  form. 


sbx 

chJ  ^4*  Durosey — gildin 

HF 

la 

J^  C  Godin — gilding, 

"$ 

r     ~l  Hnard — ornaments,  divers  styles. 

C.r)  Humbert — figure. 

%Xt-  Lambert — flowers. 

J\  m  —  Langlace — landscape, 

a. 

i, 
U 

£JL  Leroy,  Eughne — gilding 


Drouet — flowers. 

Ducluzeau,    Madame  —  figure,    sub- 
jects, portraits,  etc. 


Farraguet,    Madame  —  figure,    sut 

jects,  etc. 

Mcquenet — flowers   and  ornaments 
(pates  sur  pates). 

Fontaine — flowers, 
Viuajonard — figure,  genre,  etc. 

Ganeau  (son) — gilding. 

Gely — ornament  worker  (pates  sur 

pates). 

Georget — figure,  portraits,  etc. 

Gobert — figure  on  enamel  and  on 
pastes. 


Goupil — figure. 

Guilli  iitahi — decorator. 

Hallion,  Wughut — landscape. 
Hallion,  Franpois — decorator  in  gild- 


Julienne  —  ornaments,  style  Renais- 
sance, etc. 


Latache — gilding. 

L<  Bel — landscape. 

Legay — ornament  worker  (pates  sur 

pates). 
I.i    Gay — figures,   various    subjects, 
portraits. 

Legrand — gilding. 


MAKES   OF  SEVRES  AUTISTS. 


479 


mS^  Martinet — flowers. 

K/tv£>Jf(j  Maussion,  Mettle.  </< — figure. 

W^Vti  ^'  r'H"f — ornaments,  etc. 

0%l\  Meyer,  Alfred— figure,  etc. 

tjjkfc  Micaud— gilding. 

KStA  Milet,  Optnt — decorator  on  faience 
.Z* J.  and  pastes. 

tAdft  Moreau— gilding. 

t\  n/j  Mbriot — figure,  etc. 

A    A*  Parpette,  Dlle.— flowers. 

\~  If .  Philippine — flowers  and  ornaments. 

^J  Pline — decorative  gilding. 

/V*  Poupart — landsca  pe. 

rT)  Regnier,  Ferd. — figure,  various  sub- 
JTV  jects. 

JpT%  Regnier,  Hyacinthe — figure. 

~»4i  Rejoux — decorator. 


£  ^  Renard,  Emile — decorator. 

Ipoo 

£^fr  Richard,  fin, il< — flowers. 

£*  O  Richard,  Eugene — flowers. 


Richard,  Francois — decorator. 


jKfX,,  J\  Richard,  Joseph — decorator. 

•f|f  Richard,  Paul — decorative  gilding 

Tv>  Riocreux,  Isidore — landscape. 

J\  ^t  Riocreux,  Desire-Denis — flowers. 

_L     It  Robert,  Pierre — landscape. 

/N  "T%  Robert,  Madame — flowers  and  Ian 
KA  JL\         scape. 

f\  Robert,  Jean-Francois — landscape. 

JyrrV  Roussel — figure,  etc. 

I      ^  SchUt,  Louis-Pierre — flowers. 

O.v-  jp  Sinsson  (father) — flowers. 

A\r\  Solon — figures  and  ornaments  (pat 
/  i3"|         sur  pates). 

-|B  x\f  Swebach — landscape  and  genre. 

*T   jF  Trager — flowers,  birds. 

fl  Tr<  \yon — ornaments. 

w 


Walter — (lowers. 


CE 


UNDETERMINED   SIGNATURES,  ETC. 


Three  marks  on  plate  dated  1821,  view  of  Moka,  Bigned  L.  M.,  richly  gilded.  The 
first  mark  also  on  Beveral  plates  dated  1812,  lapis-lazuli  borders,  heavy  gilding, 
antique  cameo  paintings. 


480 


M.uiKs  of  sf:n:i:s  autists. 


r» 

Mr 


On  richly  decorated  and  gilded  plates,  1821. 


On  plate,  time  of  Louis  XVIII.,  richly  gilded;    monochrome  portrait  of 
Racine  :  (probable  mark  of  Philippine.) 


jy        III  qq  *  '  *ii  plate  not  dated,  rich  gilding,  monochrome  portrait  of  Bourdaloue. 

f*f  y  *  On  fine  plates  and  vases,  1  SI 2. 

(T\Ux*  *7C>  l^g  On  plate  temp.  Louis  XVIII.,  rich  gilding,  monochrome  portrait  of  Bour- 
<?-'           O  don  (?  Dlle.  de  Treverret). 


Twice  this  size  on  plate,  1822,  view  of  Sevres  factory;  possibly  a  visa  of 
|  Riocreux. 


In  black  on  foot  of  ice-vase,  with  river  deities  in  superb  gilding,  dated 
1831. 


ARTISTS'   SIGNATURES   FOUND   AT   FULL   LENGTH. 


Baldisseroni — figure. 
Brunei — figure. 
Bulot — flowers. 
Cool,  Madame  de — figure. 
( 'ourcy,  De — figure 
/■'/■Dim  hi — figure. 

Gallois,  Madam*.  (mV  Durand) — figure. 
Oarneray — landscape. 
It,   Qavlt — figure. 

Oodde — decorator,  enamels,  and  relief. 
//urn'), i — figure. 
Jaccober — flowers  and  fruits. 
Jacquotot,  Mm/mm  Victoire — figure,  subjects,  por- 
traits. 


Jadt  lot,  Madame — figure. 

Lamarre — landscape. 

Langlois,  Polycles — landscape. 

Laurent,    Madame    Paulim — figure,    subjects, 

etc. 
Lessore — figure,  etc. 

Mi  i/i r-l/iim — figure  and  ornaments  on  enamel. 
Parant — figure,  etc 
Philip — decorator  on  enamel. 
Schilt,  Abel — figure,  subjects,  portraits. 
Solon,  Dlle. — figure,  subjects. 
Treverret,  Dlle.  de — figure. 
Van  Os — flowers  and  fruits. 
Van  March- — landscape. 


DATE  MARKS  OF  SftVIiES. 


481 


MARKS   USED  AT   SEVRES   TO    INDICATE    DATES   OF   MANUFACTURE. 


A  (Vincennes) 175-: 


1754 

1755 

1756 

17^7 

1758 

1759 

1760 

1*761 

J  (see  foot-note) 1762 

K 1763 

L 1764 

M 1765 


1766 
1767 
1768 
1769 
1770 
1771 
1772 
1773 
1771 
1775 
1776 
1777 


AA. 
BB. 
CC. 
DD. 
EE. 
FF. 
GG. 
HH. 
II.. 


1778 
1779 
1780 

1781 
1782 
1783 
1784 
1785 
1786 


•I.I 1787 

KK 1788 


LL. 
MM 
NN. 
oo  . 
PP. 
QQ  • 
RR 


1789 
1790 
1791 
1792 
1793 
1794 
1795 


Tli  is  mode  of  mark 
only  on  rare  examples, 
the  following  signs  : 


g  the  date  fell  into  disuse,  and,  from   this  period  until  1800,  it  is  found 
In  1801,  the  custom  of  dating  was  resumed,  and  the  letters  replaced  by 


T.  9. 
X.  .. 
11.  . 


An 


f/~ 


* 


IX.  (1801) 

X.  (1802) 

XL  (1 803) 

XII   (1804) 

XIII.  (1805) 

XIV.  (1806) 


1807 
1808 


9 1809 

10 1810 

oz.  (onze) 1811 

<l.  z.  (douze) 1812 

t.  ?..  (treize) 1813 

q.  z.  (quatorze) 1*14 

q.  n.  (quinze) 1815 

S.   V.  (Seize) 1816 

d.  s.  (dix-sept) 1817 


From  1818  the  year  is  expressed  by  the  two  last   figures  only. 
etc.,  and  is  so  continued  to  the  present  time. 


Thus:    18  =  1818,  19  =  1819, 


Note. — The  Guide  published  for  the  S&vres  factory  still  adheres  to  the  old  system  of  dates,  which  n 
jected  the  letter  J,  and  regards  K  as  1 7*5*2,  ami  the  letters  which  follow  representing,  L,  17G3,  and  so         //j 
on.    This  system  is  abandoned  by  all  authorities,  French  and  English,  and  we  do  not  know  why  it 
is  retained  in  the  Guide.    In  addition  to  the  above  tables,  it  is  necessary  to  add  that  1811,  1S12,  1813 
nre  sometimes  indicated  by  11,  12,  13,  and  possibly  other  years  were  occasionally  so  indicated  to 
1317:   1709,  the  year  of  u  comet,  was  sometimes  indicated  by  a  comet  rudely  painted,  instead  of  Q. 

31 


482 


MARKS  ON   PORCELAIN  OF  FRANCE. 


j£p.     AP 


li 


B 


CM* 


5  7 


20  21 


•DV-       -DV 


IS  19 


Arr—rc-7^ 


■zrzr 

c 


2j 

"5 


J'X 


t     4? 


29 


30 


/iH      AK        + 


je  ^  b^  *«■  r"  *♦  t°* 


32  *^ 

33  34 


P. 


•v-  39 

G.  G. 


V  /3 

4G 

ap    -6     V    ^    >^*    iu    J 


47 


48  49 


52  53 


1i     3|    cf    ^>    MAP     S 

54  55  5S  59  CI 


63  04 


02 


^3f      At.^y 


B\ 


M 


G7  6S 


& 


70  71 


72  73 


jyr  W  cpG  %  6$.. 


FRANCE.  483 


PORCELAIN  OF   FRANCE. 

1,2.  Unknown  marks  on  early  French  porcelains,  given  by  Jacquemart  as  possibly 
Louis  Poterat,  of  Rouen,  1673-1711. 

3.  Unknown,  on  similar  porcelain. 

4.  St.  Cloud.     Two  forms.     Pierre  Chicanneau,  1702-'15. 

5.  St.  Cloud.     Trou,  1706. 

6.  7,  8.  Uncertain.     On  porcelains  resembling  St.  Cloud. 
9.  Paris.     Marie  Moreau,  widow  of  Chicanncau's  son. 

10-13.  Lille.     10  is  the  earliest  mark.     In  13  L  is  on  a  saucer,  and  B  on  the  cup. 

14,  15.  Chantilly.     15  is  Pigorry's  mark  since  1803. 

16,  17.  Mennecy-Villeroy.     In  gold,  color,  and,  later,  impressed. 

18,  19,  20.  Yincennes  and  Sevres.     See  marks  of  Sevres,  p.  472. 

21,22,23.  Sceaux.     21  usually  scratched.     22,  later,  painted  in  blue.     23  scratched. 


26.  La  Tour  d'Aigues. 

27.  Bourg-la-Reine. 


24.  Orleans. 

25.  Etiolles. 
28,  29.  Arras. 

30-39.  Unknown  marks  on  early  French  porcelains,  resembling  St.  Cloud,  given  by 

Jacquemart.     33,  35  are  doubtless  the  same  as  6,  8,  above. 
40-46.   Unknown  marks  on  hard -paste  porcelains.     44  attributed  by  Riocreux  to 

Fontainebleau.     45  resembles  the  mark  of  a  Sevres  painter. 

47.  Paris.     Pierre  A.  Hannong's  mark,  1773. 

48,  49.  Paris.     Same  factory.     Charles  Philippe. 

50.  Paris.     Gros  Caillou.     Established  by  Lamarrc,  1773. 

51.  Paris.     Morelle  a  Paris.     Established  1773. 

52,53.  Paris.     Souroux,  potter.     Established  1773.     His  successor  was  Ollivier. 

54.  Paris.     De  la  Courtille  factory. 

55.  Paris.  De  la  Courtille.  This  mark,  torches  or  headless  arrows,  is  made  in  va- 
rious forms,  and  sometimes  resembles  the  Dresden  crossed  swords. 

56.  Paris.  Dubois.  This  mark — two  branches,  alluding  to  the  maker's  name — 
often  resembles  the  previous  one.     Also  assigned  to  De  la  Courtille  factory. 

57.  58.  Limoges.     Factory  of  Massie.     The  earliest  mark  was  G.  R.  et  Cie. 
59,60.  La  Seinie.     Established  1774. 

61.  Paris.     J.  J.  Lassia,  1774. 

62-70.  Clignancourt.  The  windmill  is  the  earliest  mark,  rare,  used  only  in  1775. 
64  is  stencilled  on  a  specimen.  65,  initial  of  Monsieur,  the  king's  brother;  66, 
67,  68,  initials  of  Prince  Louis  Stanislas  Xavier ;  69,  initial  of  Moitte.  director, 
used  with  the  name  Clif/naricourt  ;   70,  initial  of  Deruelle,  director. 

71.  Paris.  Manufacture  du  petit  Carousel.  Mark  used  with  the  name  of  the  fac- 
tory  variously  abbreviated. 

72,  73.  Boissette. 

74,  75,  76.  Paris.     Lebeuf.     Porcelaine  de  la  Reine.     Initial  of  Marie  Antoinette. 


IS! 


MARKS   ON   PORCELAIN  OF  FRANCE. 


78 


<UZ$t  81 


<?/?     1     ffi     /     - 


89  90 


c> 


H.      §>■ 


91 


92 


iXTif  I  p|„ 


100  102 

101  103 


c^p       JP     caen      J     K    $  ,g> 
i 


106 


H  <fc      « 


H 


J3    t**     GF 


A 


108 


109 


J 


111 


112  113 


^    k    K   <R 


115 


11G 


X        3D 


118 


X 


120 


12S  12»  ,„ 

/■N  WSi      /*»\  130  132 


& 


FRANCE.  485 

77.  Paris.  Porcelainc  de  la  Rcine.  Initials  of  Guy  A:  House],  successors  to  Lc- 
bcuf.  These  occur  with  Rue  Thirou  a  Paris.  Leyeille,  12  Rue  Thiroux,  is 
the  latest  mark. 

78,79,80.  Paris.  Porcelainc  d' '  Angouleme.  Early  marks  of  Guerkard  <{•  Dihl. 
Later  marks  are  their  names  in  full,  and  Manufacture  de  Mons.  le  Due  i>' An- 
gouleme a  Paris,  without  name. 

81.  Paris.     Nast,  manufacturer.     Stencilled. 

82.  Lille.     The  early  pieces  have  a  Lille. 

83.  84,  85,  86.  Paris.  Factory  established  by  Lamarre,  1784.  84,  85,  86,  are  in- 
itials of  Louis  Philippe  Joseph,  Due  d'Orleans,  patron. 

87,  88.  Paris.     II.  F.  Chanou.     Established  1784.     The  marks  are  pencilled  in  red. 
89,  90.  Valenciennes.      Initials  of  Fauquez,  Lamoninary,  and  V.      Early  mark, 
Valencien. 

91.  Choisy  le  Roy.     Impressed. 

92,  93,  94.  Vincennes.     Factory  of  P.  A.  Hannong.     Established  1786. 

95.  Vincennes.  Attributed  to  Hannong's,  or  another  factory  under  the  patronage 
of  Louis  Philippe. 

96,  97.  Paris.     Charles  Potter.     Porcelaine  da  Prince  de  Galles. 

98.  Paris.     Belleville.     Jacob  Pettit,     The  J  has  sometimes  a  dot  above  it. 

99.  Caen.     Desmare  et  Cie.     Established  1798. 

100.  Paris.  Manufacture  de  S.  M.  VImperatrice.  Also  marked  with  full  name  of 
factory,  and  P.  L.  Dagoty,  proprietor. 

101-106.  Strasbourg.  101,  C.  Hannong;  102,  103,  Paul  A.  Hannong;  104,  the 
same,  with  II  in  the  paste;  105,  J.  A.  Hannong,  with  numbers;  106,  J.  A.  Han- 
nong. 

107.  Brancas  Lauragais. 

108,109.  Orleans.     108,  of  Gerault ;  109,  of  Le  Bran. 

110.  Given  by  Jacquemart  as  the  mark  of  Jacques  Louis  Broilliet  on  experimental 
porcelain,  at  Gros  Caillou  (Paris),  1765. 

111,112,  113.  Marseilles.     Robert,      113  is  doubtful. 

114-121.  Niderviller.  114,  Beyerle's  period ;  115,  116,  117,  L20,  Custine's  period. 
These  marks  must  not  be  confused  with  Ludwigsburg.  119  is  Lanfray's  cipher. 
Niderville  in  an  open  outlined  letter  is  impressed  on  statuettes  of  Franklin 
and  other  biscuit  pieces. 

122,  123.  Bordeaux.     Marks  of  Verneuille. 

124.  Unknown  French.     Resembles  Limbach,  in  Germany. 

125-131.  Unknown  marks  on  French  porcelain. 

132.  Attributed  by  Baron  Davillier  to  Marseilles. 


486        MASKS  ON  PORCELAIN  OF  GERMANY,  AUSTRIA,  HUNGARY. 


J 


10 

Q&9 


m 


X  W-JL 


16 


26 


\    ill   HM.C.W. 

n    qq  40 


IS  / 


39 
HEREND. 


C  .x. 


GERMANY,  AUSTRIA,  AND  HUNGARY.  4*7 


PORCELAIN  OF  GERMANY,  ETC. 

1-8.  Dresden.     Marks  stamped  on  Bottcher  red  ware. 

9,  10,  11.  Dresden.     Initials  of  Augustus  Rex,  in  blue  and  in  gold,  1709-26. 
12, 13.  Dresden.     Caducous  mark,  on  early  pieces  made  for  sale,  l7l7-'20. 
14, 15.  Dresden.     King's  period,  from  1770  ;  the  mark  with  O  about  1778. 

16.  Dresden.     Crossed  swords,  with  star.     Marcolini  period,  from  1796. 

17,  18.  Dresden.  Early  marks  for  (17)  Koniglicher  or  (18)  Meissener  Porzellan 
Manufactur. 

19,  20.  Dresden.     First  forms  of  the  crossed  swords,  used  from  1719. 

21.  Dresden.     Braid's  time,  1750. 

22.  Dresden.  Crossed  swords ;  modern  mark.  The  earliest  form,  in  Iloroldt's 
period,  sometimes  closely  resembled  the  modern  form. 

23.  Dresden.     A  modern  mark. 

24.  Dresden.     On  a  service  made  for  the  Countess  Cosel. 

25.  Dresden.     Used  about  1730. 

26.  Dresden.     Dated  1739. 

27.  Dresden.     Early  form  of  mark. 

28.  29.  Dresden.     Marks  used  1718. 
30,  31.  Dresden.     Early  marks. 

32.  Dresden.     Mark  used  1718. 

33.  Dresden.  Date  of  use  unknown;  on  statuettes,  with  or  without  the  crossed 
swords.     (Chaffers.) 

34.  35.  Vienna,  Austria. 

36.  Elbogen. 

37,  38.  Schlakenwald,  Austria.     See  p.  488,  mark  61. 

39-44.  Herend,  Hungary.  39  is  impressed  in  the  paste;  40,  41,  usually  printed 
in  blue;  42,  painted  in  black,  with  Herend  impressed;  43,  painted  in  red;  44, 
initials  of  M.  Fischer. 

45,  46.  Alten  Rothau.     JVowotni/,  maker. 

47,48.  Pirkenhammer.     Fischer  &  Reichembach,  and  Charles  Fischer. 

49.  Prague.     Kriegel  &  Co. 

50-53.  Hociist,  Mayence.  See  p.  467.  51  is  the  mark  of  Geltz  ;  52,  of  Zeschin- 
ger. 

54.  Hochst.     Mark  of  Dahl. 


488 


MARKS  ON  PORCELAIN  OF  GERMANY. 


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8    «/  ^     £     ^ 


GERMANY,  AUSTRIA,  AND  HUNGARY. 


489 


1.  Furstenberg.     The  F  is  made  in  va- 

rious forms. 

2.  Hesse  Cassel  ? 

3.  Hesse  Darmstadt.     (Jacquemart.) 

4.  5.   Fulda. 

6.  Gera?  or  Gotha?     See  25. 

7,  8.  Gotha. 

9.  Wallendorf.       (Also    used   at   Ber- 

lin.) 

10.  Arnstadt. 

11.  12,  13,  14.    LlMBACH. 


15.  Yolkstadt.     Marrvat  says  Kloster 
Veilsdorf.     See  24,  below. 

16.  Anspach.      So  says  Marrvat.      See 
26,  46,  47,  48,  below. 

17.  Rauenstein. 

18.  19.  Grosbreitenbach. 

20.  Grosbreitenbach  ? 

21,  22,  23.  Rudolstadt.     R  was  used  in 
various  forms. 

24.  Volkstadt.     See  15,  above. 

25.  Gera.     Two  forms  of  G. 


26.  Attributed  to  Gera  and  to  Anspach ;  probably  the  latter.  Chaffers  gives  it 
with  a  D  under  a  crown.  The  mark  varies  from  a  rude  eagle  (46)  to  this  form. 
See  16. 

27,  28.  Baden-Baden.     The  blade  of  an  axe  or  two  axes,  in  gold  or  impressed. 
29-35.  Ludwigsburg   (Kronenburg).      The   double  C   is  the  cipher  of  Charles 

Eugene,  who  died  1793,  but  the  mark  was  used  till  1806.  It  must  not  be  con- 
founded with  that  of  Niderviller,  in  Custine's  time,  which  was  sometimes  accom- 
panied by  a  coronet.  The  mark  frequently  appears  without  the  crown,  as  in  31 
and  32.  The  form  30  (L,  with  a  crown)  is  also  a  mark  of  the  time  of  Charles 
Eugene.  The  letters  C  C  in  mark  29  were  changed  in  1806  to  T.  R,,  the  T.  R. 
being  sometimes  in  monogram;  and  in  1818  the  letters  W.  R.  were  substituted. 
The  stag's  horns,  singly,  35,  or  on  a  shield,  as  in  34,  were  also  used. 

36.  IIildesheim,  Hanover.     Sometimes  the  letter  A  only  ;  from  about  1760. 

37,  38,  39.  Nymphenburg  and  Neudeck.  The  first  is  the  oldest  mark.  These  arc 
impressed,  without  color,  and  sometimes  difficult  to  recognize.  Found  on  pieces 
with  marks  of  other  factories,  which  bought  and  decorated  them. 

40-45.  Frankenthal.  41,  P.  A.  Ilannong's  mark;  42,  Joseph  A.  Hannong  ;  43, 
initials  of  Carl  Theodore,  Elector ;  44,  supposed,  of  Ringlev  ;  45,  supposed,  of 
Bartolo. 

46,  47,  48.  Anspach,  in  Bavaria.  I  50.  Regensburg  (Ratisbox). 

49.  Baireuth.  I  51.   Wt-RTZBURG,  Bavaria. 

52-57.  Berlin.  The  sceptre  is  the  general  mark,  made  in  several  forms.  52,  53, 
54  are  the  earliest  marks  of  Wegeley,  1750—61;  56,  globe  and  cross  and 
K.  P.  M.,  for  Kbniglicher  Porzellan  Manufacture  adopted  about  1830;  57, 
modern  mark,  alone,  and  with  K.  P.  M.  The  Wegeley  marks  resemble  Wallen- 
dorff  and  others. 


58.  Charlottenberg. 

59.  Proskac. 

60.  Vienna.    See  p.  486  for  other  forms 
of  the  shield. 


61.  Schlakenwald,  Austria.     See  page 
486  for  other  forms. 

62,  63,  64.   Unknown  marks  on  German 
hard-paste  porcelain. 


I'M)       VARKS   OF  H0LL4ND,  BELGIUM,  SWEDES,  DESMMIK,  Ul'sslA. 


66  6G  67  CS  GO  '°  "'  "2  V3 

so 
76  /  81 


_  S5  gj 

-**'  A.  J%  3  £  LC. 


•  91                                                                                                                                05 

ss               U-.  /?  92              or,                      94                          H- 

£    .  fe>  j|  JJ     E      «£*-     .£• 

B      L  -3 


102  103 


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rAFAfiEfh      nonoBti     ■ZA-L         i  v 
*"r  -  ,     KSBZ    - 

PyAWHA    Jhdyangwya     Qui         II  from? 


GERMANY,  HOLLAND,  SWITZERLAND,  BELGIUM,  RUSSIA,  ETC.       491 

65-76.   Unknown  marks  on  German  hard-paste  porcelain. 
77,78.  Uncertain;  possibly  Frankenthdl, Hannong fecit. 

79.  Weesp,  Holland. 

80.  Weesp  ?  Arnstadt  ?  Saxe  Gotha  ?     Uncertain. 

81.  Loosdreciit.     Manufactur  oude  Loosdrecht. 

82.  83.  Amstel  (Amsterdam). 

84.  Amsterdam.     The  lion  frequently  alone. 

85.  The  Hague. 

86.  87,  88.  Brussels.     87  is  mark  of  L.  Crette. 
89-92.  Luxembourg.     93  is  the  modern  mark. 

93.  Zurich,  Switzerland. 

94.  Nyox,  Switzerland. 

95-98.  Tourxay.     95  is  Peterynck's  mark  from  1751  ;  the  tower  is  also  assigned 

to  Vincennes,  and  pieces  thus  marked  are  called  "  Porcelaine  de  la  tour." 
99, 100, 101.  Marieberg,  Sweden. 
102, 103.  Copenhagen.     Three  waving  lines  for  the  Sound  and  the  Belts. 


POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN  OF  RUSSIA,  ETC. 

104-112.  St.  Petersburg.  Royal  factory;  104,  time  of  Empress  Elizabeth,  1741  ; 
105,  106,  Empress  Catharine  (Ekaterina),  1762  ;  107,  Emperor  Paul,  1796  ;  108, 
Emperor  Alexander,  1801;  109,  Emperor  Nicholas,  1825;  110,  111,  Emperor 
Alexander  II.,  1855;  112,  shows  system  of  dates  by  dots  adopted  1871 — one 
dot  for  1871,  two  for  1872,  etc. 

113,  114.  St.  Petersburg.     Brothers  Korniloff. 

115-119.  Moscow.     Gardners. 

120-123.  Moscow.     Popoff.     Factory  established  1830. 

124.  Kiev,  Russia,  or  near  there  at  Mejigorie.     Pottery. 

125.  Baranowka,  Poland.     Pottery. 

126.  Chmeloff,  Poland.      Pottery. 

127.  Kiev,  Russia.     Pottery. 

128.  Korzec,  Poland.     Pottery. 


4:92 


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52 


ENGLAND.  493 


POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 

1-18.  Bow.  Scratched  marts,  resembling  4, 11,  and  other  unintelligible  scratches 
occur.     Other  marks  are  in  color,  sometimes  as  in  14, 15,  16, 18,  in  two  colors. 

19.  Bow?  Bristol?     Impressed  mark.     Uncertain. 

20,21.  Chelsea.  The  triangle  impressed  was  formerly  assigned  to  Bow  till  dis- 
covery of  piece  with  mark  21.  It  is  on  an  English  pottery  teapot  in  the  T.-P. 
collection. 

22.  Chelsea.     Anchor  embossed.     Early  mark. 

23,  24.  Chelsea.  Forms  of  the  anchor  mark  in  colors  or  gold.  The  anchor  was 
used  by  many  other  factories. 

25,  26.  Uncertain.     Bow  ? 
27,28.  Derby.     Chelsea-Derby  period. 

29,  30.  Derby.  Crown-Derby  period.  30  supposed  to  be  mark  on  pieces  made  at 
Chelsea,  after  the  purchase  by  Duesbury,  and  before  closing  the  works. 

31.  Derby.     A  mark  of  Duesbury's  time,  date  unknown. 

32,  33,  34,  35.  Marks  used  from  about  1788.  The  earliest  in  puce  or  blue,  later  in 
red.     34  is  of  Duesbury  &  Kean. 

36.  Derby.      Bloor's  mark,  1825-30. 
37-41.  Derby.     Bloor's  marks. 

42.  Derby.     Modern  mark  of  S.  Hancock,  present  owner. 

43,  44.  Derby  ?     Uncertain  marks  on  pieces  resembling  Derby. 

45,  46.  Derby.     Copies  of  Sevres  and  Dresden  marks  on  Derby  porcelain. 
47.  Derby.     On  a  statuette. 

48-52.  Derby.  48,49,50  are  imitations  of  a  Chinese  symbol.  51  is  uncertain, 
perhaps  of  Bloor's  time.     52,  a  star,  often  impressed  on  figures. 


4i»4  MARKS   ON   POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 


63 


55 


56  57 


A.     -A.    5%i    c   *&>   T 

63 


61 


QLf  £     Af  6T  63 


tnfiCpffvL, 


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TO  <\^  ^CJ  72  73 

0  X        00 


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81 


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86 


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SALOPIAN        ^       TURNER 


S9  M 


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95 


HbH* 


G/ 


97 


ENGLAND.  495 


53-57.  Bow?     These  marks  occur  in  blue  on  figures. 

58.  Bow?     Supposed  monogram  of  Fry  in  blue. 

59.  Bow  ?     Impressed. 

60.  Derby.     On  service  made  for  the  Persian  ambassador. 

61.  Derby.     On  a  plate. 

62.  Derby.     Used  in  1842.     Imitation  of  Sevres. 

63-76.  Derby.  On  various  pieces.  71-75  are  marks  of  Cocker,  on  figures,  etc., 
made  by  him  at  Derby  till  1840,  and  after  that  in  London  \  76  is  an  imitation 
of  a  Sevres  mark. 

77-82.  Worcester.     Workmen's  marks  on  Worcester  porcelain. 

83.  Caugiiley.   Forms  of  the  crescent  mark,  and  C  in  blue. 

84.  Caughley.     Forms  of  S,  for  Salopian,  in  blue  or  impressed. 

85.  Caughley. 

86.  87.  Caughley. 

88-96.  Caughley.     Numerals  1,  2,  3,  e^c,  in  fanciful  style  on  printed  wares. 
97.  Caughley.     Mark  of  Rose? 


1:96  MARKS    ON  POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 


104 

c 


100  107  10S 

(/■tnoc&n  J 

343  Jfooo 


102  103 

S3' 


110 


p    Ptf   p 


114 


111 


/  i  3  *•  S  6  7 


PT^fCWW^        (gC€ 


115 


f   C  J 


120 


11s 


m 


m 


121 


t 


123 


124 


w  L4 


X2B 


127 


12S 


131 

<ooo 


132 


fcs 


ENGLAND.  497 


98.    COALPORT. 

99-104.  Colebrook-Dale.  The  first  three  are  the  older  marks.  102,  adopted 
I  1851.  103  is  the  modern  mark,  being-  a  monogram  of  S.  C,  for  Salopian,  Cole- 
brook-Dale, and  including  ( \  for  Caughley  or  Coalport;  S,  for  Swansea;  and  N, 
for  Nantgarrow,  the  combined  factories. 

105.  Shelton.  The  New  Hall  factory.  Modern  marks  of  this  factory  are  Hack- 
wood,  or  IIackwood  &  Co.,  from  1842  to  1850  ;  then  C  &  II,  late  Hackwood, 
for  Cockson  &  Harding;  and  since  1862  Harding. 

106-110.    PlNXTON. 

111-132.  Worcester.     The  early  mark  is  the  letter  W,  in  various  forms,  as  in 

112.     This  stands  for  Worcester  or  Wall. 
The  crescent,  also  in  different  forms,  as  in  113,  in  blue,  gold,  or  impressed,  was  used 

prior  to  1793.     It  must  not  be  mistaken  for  the  crescent  of  Caughley,  which  it 

closely  resembles,  so  that  specimens  can  sometimes  be  identified  only  by  the 

paste  or  the  decorations. 
The  marks  numbered  111  are  workmen's  marks.     These  do  not  identify  specimens 

with  certainty,  as  of  Worcester,  for  similar  marks  are  found  on  other  porcelains. 
The  square  marks,  114,  115,  116,  are  early  marks,  imitating  Oriental. 
Marks  117, 118, 119  are  found  on  prints,  and  are  the  signatures  of  Robert  Hancock, 

engraver.     The  anchor  in  118  and  119  may  be  of  Richard  Holdship.     See  text. 
The  marks  120-126  are  early  marks,  fanciful  imitations  of  Chinese.     Other  marks 

occur,  resembling  these  in  character. 
127, 128, 129,  130  are  imitations  of  the  crossed-sword  mark  of  the  Dresden  factory. 

131  is  an  imitation  of  the  mark  of  Sevres. 

132  is  an  imitation  of  the  mark  of  Chantilly. 

32 


498  MARKS  ON   POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 


134 


135 


<fe 


FLIGHTS        <&&dt      cJm  B 


141 


138 


FligMBarr&Barr. 


142 


of  Jra 


143 


WORCESTER. 

_..^ondoT\— House. 
JK.ICoveatry  Street. 


C/rarnLexlairt*  CHAMBERLAINS 


146 


147  US 


2 


152 

X 

\ 

159 


1G0 


154 


161 


X 


162 


ft  lu 

156 

A 1        A        ^ 


163 


4- 


ICO  167  loa 


169 


(SPODE 


Stem  e -China, 


Imperial 


';"'';.  if- 

'v,  •;    v 


ENGLAND.  499 


133-146.  Worcester  (continued  from  previous  page).  Flight  purchased  the 
works  (1783),  and  used  his  name,  impressed  (mark  133),  or  painted  (134),  some- 
times with  the  crescent  mark  in  blue.  133  and  134  were  used  till  1792.  Af- 
ter the  king's  visit,  in  1788,  mark  135  was  sometimes  used. 

136.  Scratched  mark  of  Barr  after  1793. 

137.  Flight  &  Barr,  1793-1807. 

138.  140.  Flight,  Barr,  &  Barr,  1807-'13.     The  F.  B.  B.  impressed. 

139.  Impressed  mark,  used  1813-40. 

141.  Printed  mark,  used  1813-40. 

142.  Chamberlain,  1788  to  about  1804. 

143.  Chamberlain,  1847-'50.     Impressed  or  printed. 

A  printed  mark,  Chamberlain's  Regent  China,  Worcester,  etc.,  under  a  crown,  was 
used  from  1811  to  about  1820. 

A  written  mark,  Chamberlains,  Worcester,  <£•  63  Piccadillij,  London,  was  used 
about  1814. 

A  printed  mark,  Chamberlains,  Worcester,  &  155  New  Bond  St.  London,  un- 
der a  crown,  was  used  from  1820  to  1840.  After  the  union  of  the  two  facto- 
ries in  1840,  the  printed  mark  was  Chamberlain  &  Co.,  155  New  Bond  St., 
&  No.  1  Coventry  Street,  London,  under  a  crown. 

In  1847  the  mark  was  simply  Chamberlain  &  Co.,  Worcester. 

From  1847  to  IS 50  mark  143  was  used. 

144  was  used  1850-51. 

145.  Mark  adopted  by  Kerr  &  Binns,  1851,  and  since  used. 

146.  Kerr  &  Binns,  on  special  work. 

147.  Plymouth.     In  blue,  red,  or  gold. 

148-164.  Bristol.  The  general  mark  is  a  cross  (149),  in  slate-color,  blue,  or  in 
the  paste,  with  or  without  numbers  and  other  marks.  Numbers  from  1  to  24 
are  thought  to  be  of  decorators.  B,  with  a  number  (marks  151—154),  was  fre- 
quently used.  155  shows  Bristol  and  Plymouth  combined;  157,  John  Britain, 
foreman  in  the  factory.  159  shows  an  embossed  T  over  the  cross  in  blue.  The 
Dresden  mark  was  frequently  used,  as  in  160,  161,  162,  163,  in  combination 
with  numbers,  etc.     164  is  probably  a  workman's  mark. 

165-169.  Stoke.  Minton.  165  is  the  earliest  mark.  166,  167  are  also  early 
marks.     168  was  used  about  1850,  and  169  later. 

170-174.  Stoke.  Marks  of  Josiah  Spode,  father  and  son.  170  is  an  old  mark, 
neatly  pencilled  in  various  colors. 


500  HARKS  ON  POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN  OF  ENGLAND. 


g  SPODES 


tst 

COPELAND  c^pclano 


«M^^^ » 


184 


Copeland  Jate  Spode 


JdroTTitld. 


130  ik~ 

1X1     ff«    ^j^     NANT-OffiW     ^tgft^ 


190 


p 


ROGEES 


GW 


193  194 

Masons  Patent  Opacpe  Cliina 

Iron  Stone  CJiina .  _|J  a U ll    v/ 


195 


197 


19S 


MbJr 


202 


<* 


C6T    ^ 


J 


ffl  20l 


205 

SCOTT 


<& 


&'   "**. 


^ 


TURNER 


3fc 


FB 


<»* 


206 


207 


tf> 


208 
HERCULANEUM 


2(W 

WEDGWOOD 


211 


213 

Wedgwood  &  Bentley 
212  214 


Wedgwood  i  Ben&ey      W-etymoti       Q    f)     (j    ; ;      r, 


ENGLAND.  501 


175-183.  Stoke.     Marks  of  the  several  successors  of  Spode  since  1833. 

175.  Copeland  k  Garret,  1833-47. 

176.  Used  by  Copeland  &  Garret. 

177.  Copeland  &  Garret. 

178.  179.  Copeland  &  Garret,  1833-47. 

180.  Copeland,  1847-51. 

181.  Copeland,  after  1851. 

182.  Copeland  used,  1847-67. 

183.  W.T.  Copeland  &  Sons,  after  1867. 

184.  Rockingham.  Adopted  about  1823.  The  mark  of  Brameld  from  1807  was 
his  name  impressed,  sometimes  with  a  cross  and  four  dots.  Teapots  have  im- 
pressed marks  :  Mortlock,  Cadogans,  Mortlock's  Cadogan,  Rockingham. 
Coffee-pots  had  sometimes  the  pattern  name  Norfolk  impressed. 

185-187.  Swansea.  The  name  Swansea,  stencilled  or  impressed,  was  used  about 
1815  ;  also  Swansea,  Dillwyn  &  Co.,  and  Dillwyn's  Etruscan  Ware. 
Marks  185,  186  are  impressed,  date  unknown.  187  is  on  an  old  pottery  vase. 
Cambrian  Pottery  also  appears. 

188.  Nantgarrow,  1813-20,  painted,  impressed,  or  stencilled  Mortlock,  in  gilt, 
occurs  on  ware  decorated  in  London,  and  also  on  Swansea  ware. 

189.  Longport.  Davenfiorfs  mark.  The  earliest  mark  was  Longport,  or  Daven- 
port Longport.  The  marks  are  impressed  or  printed,  and  forms  vary.  After 
1805,  on  iron-stone  wares  the  anchor  was  in  a  portico. 

190.  Liverpool.     Richard  Chaffers. 

191.  Liverpool.     Pennington.     In  gold  or  colors. 

192.  Longport.     Rogers.     Pottery  and  iron-stone. 

193.  Lane  Delph.  C.J.  Mason.  Various  other  marks,  including  the  name.  The 
oldest  marks  include  the  name,  Miles  Mason  ;  a  mark  is  Mason's  Cambrian 
Argil;  and  a  late  mark,  Fenton  Stone  Works,  C.  .1.  M.  &  Co. 

194.  Tunstall  and  Btjrslem.     Bridgwood  d-  ('lurk,  1857. 

195.  Longton.     Hilditch  (ft  Son. 

196.  Tunstall.     Bowers? 

197.  Longton.     Mayer  &  Neivbold. 

198.  199.  On  Elers-ware  teapots. 
200.  Yarmouth.     Absolon. 
201,202,203.  Leeds.      201  is  Charles  Green. 

204.  Lane-End.      Turner. 

205.  Edinburgh  (Portobello)  pottery. 

206.  207,  208.  Liverpool.  206,  208  are  Ilerenlaneum  pottery.  Marks  of  this  pot- 
tery are  found  impressed,  painted,  and  printed  on  bottoms  and  sides  of  pieces, 
207  is  of  Case  <(■  .!/«/•/,  proprietors  from  is:;:;. 

209-214.  Burslem  and  Etruria.  Marks  of  Wedgwood  and  his  factory.  The  mosl 
common  mark  is  the  word  wedgwood,  impressed.      This  is  continued  in  use 


502  ENGLAND. 


at  present,  and  old  wares  arc  distinguished  from  modern  only  by  the  work. 
Marks  211,  212  are  <>ld  marks,  never  counterfeited,  so  far  as  known.  The  marks 
of  Wedgwood  &  Bentley  are  rarely  found  except  on  good  old  work.  A  great 
variety  of  marks,  scratched  or  impressed,  are  found  on  specimens,  accompanying 
the  name;  those  in  forms  of  sections  of  a  circle,  as  shown  in  214,  are  supposed 
to  characterize  work  from  1810-'20.  Capital  letters  are  common  marks;  but 
no  significance  attaches  to  them,  except  that  in  all  cases  where  three  capital  let- 
ters occur  on  a  piece  Miss  Meteyard  says  it  is  modern — since  1845.  Miss  Mete- 
yard  also  says,  "The  letter  O  and  the  number  3 — either  separately  or  com- 
bined— always  indicate  the  best  period  and  the  highest  quality  of  ware."  A 
very  rare  mark  is  "  B  &  W." 

Porcelain  was  marked  with  the  name  impressed  and,  more  rarely,  printed  in 
color.     See  text,  p.  332,  for  other  information. 

Other  English  wares  are  marked  with  names  of  makers,  which  will  be  found 
in  the  text.  Initials  are  sometimes  found,  which  may  also  be  determined  by 
reference  to  the  Alphabetical  List  of  English  Potters,  at  pp.  385-387.  The  col- 
lector will  discover  many  marks  on  English  wares  not  catalogued,  since  tables 
are  necessarily  imperfect.  Thus,  since  these  tables  were  electrotyped,  we  have 
found  wood  impressed  on  pieces  of  a  service,  others  of  which  have  E.  Wood  & 
Sons,  showing  the  former  to  be  an  occasional  mark  used  by  this  firm.  We  have 
also  found  printed  pottery  in  dark  blue,  with  landscapes,  on  which  adam,  war- 
ranted Staffordshire,  is  impressed  in  a  circle  around  the  American  eagle. 
These  wares  are  of  about  1820,  but  the  potter  is  unknown.  Several  English 
potters  adopted  the  American  eagle,  printed  in  blue,  as  a  mark,  with  or  without 
their  names  accompanying  it,  and  apparently  on  wares  intended  for  the  American 
market.     All  specimens  which  we  have  seen  with  this  mark  are  later  than  1815. 

Engravers  of  prints  rarely  signed  their  work,  and,  except  of  Hancock  and 
Sadler,  signatures  are  almost  unknown.  A  large  pitcher  in  the  T.-P.  Collection, 
marked  iierculaneum  pottery,  Liverpool,  has  two  prints,  one  representing 
"  Commodore  Preble's  squadron  attacking  the  city  of  Tripoli  Aug.  3,  ]  804," 
the  other  a  portrait  of  Commodore  Preble,  in  an  oval  resting  on  a  landscape,  with 
cannon,  a  flag,  an  Indian  woman,  etc.  The  latter  print,  one  of  unusual  excellence 
as  an  engraving,  is  signed  d,  but  we  have  no  knowledge  of  the  engraver.  Ywious 
signs,  printed  in  blue,  stars,  squares,  rosettes,  chemical  signs,  etc.,  are  found  on 
printed  wares,  of  whose  meaning  nothing  is  known.  We  have  seen  a  print  on 
a  Washington  pitcher  resembling  No.  9,  page  359,  but  a  different  engraving, 
signed  F.  Morris;  and  the  signature,  Bentley  Wear  d-  Bourne  Engravers  d' 
Printers  Shelton  Staffordshire,  on  black  prints  of  "The  Wasp  &  Reindeer," 
and  "The  Wasp  boarding  the  Frolic,"  which  are  on  a  small  cream -colored 
pitcher  with  pink  lustre  rim. 


CHINA   AND  JAPAN  503 


MARKS  ON  PORCELAIN  OF  CHINA   AND  JAPAN. 

Some  explanation  of  the  Oriental  marks  has  already  been  given  in  the  text.  It 
is  repeated  here,  for  convenience  of  reference. 

Chinese  marks  are  dates,  mottoes  expressive  of  good  wishes,  indications  of  the 
rank  and  quality  of  the  persons  for  whose  use  the  wares  are  intended,  symbolic 
signs,  etc.  The  method  of  dating  is  usually  by  the  name  of  the  dynasty  and  reign 
of  the  ruling  sovereign.  It  is  customary  in  China  to  give  to  each  reign  a  name, 
such  as  "  the  brilliant,"  "  the  excellent,"  etc.  So,  also,  with  the  dynasties.  The 
"Ming"  Dynasty  means  the  "illustrious"  dynasty.  With  the  names  of  the  dynasty 
and  the  reign  sometimes  occur  two  signs  for  two  words — nien  (years  or  period)  che 
(made).  Here,  for  example,  is  one  of  the  marks  of  a  period  or  reign  in  the  Ming 
Dynasty.  It  commences  in  reading  at  the  right  hand,  top,  and  is 
read  downward  as  the  signs  are  numbered,  thus  :  1,  Ta  ;  2,  Ming  ;  4  yC  J\  ' 
3,  Ching  ;   4,  Hwa  ;   5,  Nien  ;    6,  Che  ;    which  is,  in  English,  1,  2,       _  ,  t  .    , 

Great  Ming;    3,  4,  Ching -hwa;    5,  6,  period  made;    and  means    5  ^L        KH  J 
"  made  in  Ching-hwa  period  of  Great  Ming  Dynasty."     The  Em-  »         . 

peror  Tchun-ti  reigned  1465-87,  and  his  reign  was  called  the  c  ffij;  foX,' 
Ching-hwa  period.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  third  and  fourth  of 
these  signs  are  the  name  of  the  period.  Accordingly,  in  the  following  Table  we 
omit  the  dynasty  signs  and  those  signifying  "period  made,"  and  give  only  the  two 
characters  which  name  the  period.  Porcelains  having  the  "six  marks,"  so  called,  of 
the  period  above  given  are  more  highly  esteemed  than  any  others.  Those  of  the 
Yung-lo,  Seuen-tih,  Kea-tsing,  and  Wan-leih  periods  of  the  Ming  Dynasty  are  also 
prized.  All  these  are  admirably  counterfeited,  with  the  marks,  in  modern  times. 
Careful  examination  and  comparison  with  the  mark  given  in  the  Table  are  neces- 
sary ;  for  Chinese  workmen  were  not  always  skilful  writers,  and  the  same  mark, 
written  by  different  hands,  varies  quite  as  much  as  English  handwriting. 

Another  class  of  Chinese  marks  are  seal  marks.     These  are  in  characters  used 

only  for  such  purposes,  and  the  signs  are  of  similar  value  to  those  in  the  six  marks. 

The  example  here  given   reads,  "Made  in  the  period  of  Kien-long 

(1736-95)  of  the  Thsing  Dynasty.      Potters'  names  and  factory 

marks  rarely  occur  on  Chinese  ware.      Square   marks,  resembling 

ICR  V)|ljlll    seal  marks,  but  illegible,  are  common. 

The  various  symbolic  marks  on  Chinese  wares  are  but  little  un- 
derstood, as  we  know  little  of  the  Chinese  civilization.  It  is  sup- 
posed that  some  forms,  occurring  more  frequently  in  the  decorations  of  pieces,  have 
reference  to  the  class  of  people  for  whom  the  wares  were  made. 

Japanese  marks  are  rare  on  old  specimens.  Dates  are  on  the  same  system  with 
the  Chinese.  On  both  wares  marks  are  sometimes  impressed,  but  usually  painted  in 
color.     Most  of  the  Japanese  marks  in  the  Tables  are  found  on  modern  fabrics. 


504 


CHINESE  MARKS  AND  SYMBOLS. 


marks,  etc.,  on  porcelain  of  china. 


Murk,  of  TVri..,ls 


an-JL.      '/',,  Ming  Dynasty, 
tyi/\  L368-1647. 

^\4t  Hung-woo,  L868. 
V£  3i||  Keen-wan,  L399.    . 
■$£  ^<   Yung-lo,  1403. 
JEfi  »Ytfc  Hung-he,  1425. 

^r*  ^l£  Seuen_te'  142,i- 
4jj\  JF  Ching-thung,  1436. 


& 


Kinsr-tae,  1450. 


JM   "^  Theen-shun,  1457. 

I'b^  Ching-hwa,  1465. 

^  H^  Hung-che,  1488. 

$53    7p  CMng-tih,  1506. 
His*  JUL. 


Murks  of  Period* 


JH 


Kea-tsing,  1522. 

ISJ;  IXtjs    Lung-king,  1507. 

|j-fe  TO    Wall-leih'  1573- 

M  ^S    Tae-chang,  L620. 

^f  ^    Theen-khe,  1621. 

If  ^  Tsuns-chin& 1628- 

yi^Kp^    Tsuug-k\vang,1644. 
JL>Y/]u?    Shaou-woo,  1646. 
Lung- woo,  1647. 
fatf<vU  Yung-leih,  1647. 


«* 


rJ',i  Thsing  Dynasty, 
1616-1861. 


Murks  of  Pi-riiHJs. 


qhJ\     Theen-ming,  1616. 
IS  7^     Tlieen-t^ing,  1627. 


Tsung-tc,  1636. 

JS  |ft    ShUn-Cbe'  1644- 
IEB  /IF    Kang-he,  1662. 

fiSlliS  Kien-lon& me- 

K5?tSi<  Kea-king,  1796. 

/L^l  Taou-kwang) 1821- 

Jjfc  Ilan-fung,  1851. 


Thung-she,  1861. 


MARKS  IX  THE  SEAL  CHARACTER. 


ill! 

LUFinnnj    Shun-chee,  164  1. 

SsfEfs 


Kang-he,  L662. 


rune-chine,  1 728. 


Kien-long,  1733. 


Kea-king,  1796. 


mm 


Taou-kwang,  1822. 


if. 


ill 


an-fung,  1851. 


Thung-che,  1861. 


/  Ching-hwa,  1465. 
Forgery  on  mod- 
ern work. 


Iljl  \S  Shun -.lie,      L644. 
.....  ' ^n.        Another  form  of 

yjyjja    E°urmarks- 


IfrelsH    Kien-long,     1736. 

nSSMafl        Another  form, 
run  Sal 


is  a 


i|3p 

da  a 


Taou-kwang,  1822. 
Another  form. 


Han -fung,      1851. 
Another  form. 


Thung-che,    1861. 
Another  form. 


Thung-che.     Name 
only. 


CHINESE  MARKS  AND  SYMBOLS. 


505 


Marks,  Symbols, 


as? 


Three  forms  of  the  two-fish  mark, 
found  on  old  blue  ware  :  one  of 
the  earliest  known,  from  969- 
1106. 


The  sesamum  flower.  Various 
flower  marks  are  found,  in  an- 
cient and  modern  periods. 


Una  :  a  small  flower  inside  a  cup. 
Marks  the  Yung-lo  period, 
1408-1424. 


Butterfly. 


Show:  long  life;  a  wish  for  lon- 
gevity, common  in  one  or  an- 
other of  these  and  ether  forms 
en    porcelain:    sometimes    re- 


Marks,  Symbols, 
etc. 


I M  a  ted  a  hundred  or  more 
times.  Such  pieces  are  called 
"  hundred  show." 


Circular  show  mark. 


Oval  show  mark. 


Thin  form  of  show. 


I 


Fuh-che :  happiness. 


506 


CHINESE  MARKS  AND  SYMBOLS. 


Marks,  Symbols, 


ft 


b-che :  happiness. 


Luh  :  wealth". 


*>  Keih  :  good  luck, 

"1  Yuh  :  a  gem  ;  precious  thing. 

\^  Wan :  literature 

popj  Hing :  flourishing. 


-  Ke :  a  vessel ;  vase ;  ability. 


O  □ 
i  ii  !■ 

□  □ 

±_± 


^-m"  Paou:  precious. 

**^y  Ting:  perfect. 

3jQ  Tsuen :  perfect ;  a  name. 

/  /j^v  King :  good  wishes. 

/k/  A  name. 

~CJ^  Woo-fuh  :   the  five  blessings — long 

.  life,  health,  riches,  love  of  virtue, 

jTT5*  a  natural  death. 

Zr^^T"  ^  0()"l'mn :  tne  fivo  blessings. 

5t>  1 

*"         M'hin-vuh: 

2 


precious  gem. 


Marks,  Symbols, 
etc. 


a»  j 

**      lw. 


uh-chin :  precious  gem. 


3. 


an-yuh  :  beautiful  gem. 


Chin- wan :  valuable  rarity. 


-Ta-keih:  prosperity,  good  luck. 


Choo-foo:  a  polite  expression  in 
China.     Mark  used  1260-1367. 


Keang-tang :     preserved    ginger 
Used  1522-1566. 


Tsaou-tang:    preserves;     chow- 
chow.     Used  1522-1566. 


Tung-gan,  a  name. 


*     It      r 

j\         >  i nns-ching,  a 
J2L 


*S  *-*""0> 


N3? 


Ml 

s9< 


,      {"      hall  of  the  middle. 

Mp^    tensche  ) 


1 


m 

t 


Wei  1 

foo 
clung 

Jin 
ho 


Made  to  add  to  the  jas- 
per. 


-  Hall  of  brotherhood. 


CHINESE  MARES  AND  SYMBOLS. 


507 


Marks,  Symbols,  etc. 


til. 
7t 


Fungi 

>■  seen    )■  Ilall  of  ancestors. 

I 
tang  J 


wonderful  beau- 


^^L       1  Tang  Khe^l  Made   for  hall  of 

J*[3E   jche  >'uhJ    ly- 


HI 


TangChing] 


°  I  Made  for  hall  of 
,  ,     ..  virtuous  study. 


f 


1 


[ Tang  Pl  1  Made   for   hall    of 


^J]T       I  che     yuhj      ^welled  girdle. 


P    ^p  Tang  Tze^|  Made    for    hall    of 

'•^        \  )■     violet     embroid- 

hij  che     tze  J       ery. 


Tang  Kin 
che     wei   j 


Made  for  hall  of 
worship. 


m 


Sfej|      Jke    tangj 


Kea  Yuh  1  -r,       ...  ,  f 

I  Beautiful  vase  tor 

(      hall  of  gems. 


'J3 
/-4 


=P    ~J2.  Chang  Full  "I  „r    ,,,       , 

-1-   """—  I  |  \\  ealth,     honor, 

36  £    J 


tU3»^         fchun     kwe:f      long  youth. 


03 


Chang  Fuh  "I  „T    ,.,       , 

n  I  Wealth,      honor, 

A    «ft-  •         i       •  i       long  life. 

/fajm  j.nmg     kweij 

)|f  ^      1  Tzc  Teen  1  IIeayon  grftnt  hap 

fflif   J'""1™'" J   ,,in"3S' 

j/fl  /^s        I  Jou  Khe"l  Wonderful    as    the 

C3  J         )>  y     five    precious 

-j—   ZC^\      j  w0°  chin  J      things. 


Marks,  Symbols,  etc. 


^Onj*  1  JoU  Khel  Wonderful  gem,  re 

ac  r^  J  yuh  chin  J   semblms a  Jewel 

$11  nT  lJouKh<0 

AM   O  J  y  J.  same  signification. 

Sifc  Jyuhwll,,J 


Ya  Ching""!  Remarkable  meet- 
y    ing    of    philoso- 
^  yfr*  tsei  yu      J     pliers  and  friends. 


[  Valuable    curiosity 

,        I       for  antiquaries, 
wan    ku  J  ^ 


"1       metal    incense- 

I  tins  yah  t  pot. 

Shan  Wan  [Compliment  ; 
comparing  to  a 
mountain     and 


^"yT        1  Paou  Wan  fElegant,    perfect, 
, ,1'-  S\J  I  J       precious     ting; 


tow    shaiiE 


the  North-star. 


•+ 


frrr    M 

nit- 


on ilm 


}Made   for   one    who 
knows  gems. 


Wan  show  woo  keang :  an  un- 
limited long  life. 


Wan 


show 


keam 


Same.     This  is  in  the 
seal  character. 


W 

fr  'It  ~\ 

r\~  /— L.  I  Keang     ming     kaou    (name) ; 

Jtt;  Q0_  j       tsaou  (maker). 

3>^—  TiT\J  J 


:.us 


V1IIXKSE  MARKS  AND   SYMBOLS. 


Marks,  - 

eti . 


'•'  '  l«*\J     (  Wan   ming  cheang  (name)  che 

M0H  I"  (made)- 

Jltr  '**-     !  5Tung   ching  vu  che:   made  for 

|4 IE  J   v""""lliM- 

8|!S 


5$ 


Leen  ching  khe  how  (not  trans- 
lated). 


'  /*-*     j  Jo    shin    chin    tsang :     precious 
Urrt'  VJt    i       property  ;  Jo  shin  (name). 

3wm  j 


t 


Same  mark. 


ill!  of   ! 


ame  mark. 


^   7^      I  che    she    I  Ting  of  very  precious 
*<-  /Jj      (-  the    she    j-      aQd  cogtl    gtone_ 

9~ 


AtrS? 


chin  paou 


i0, 


"£?   — fc.       )-  che   yr, 

J>\  ip  chin  paou 

m  tjj    ]  Yuh  Ohungl 


>  Same  meaning. 


/<*/ 


I  For  the  true-heart- 
1  ya     yuh       [■     ed,   elegant  gem 
made. 


If, 

J-  dp:      che  mei      J 


Hi 

js        *&  !  Long  life  as  the  south  mountain. 

-u.    ~j-*  j      Happiness  like  the  east  sea. 

5§rU  j 


Marks,  Symbols, 


Badge  of  authority;   on  pieces  for 
mandarins. 


Tablet  of  honor,  including  the  Swas- 
tika.    (See  text.) 


Another  form  of  the  same. 


Another  form. 


£~3^y       A  mandarin  mark  of  honor. 

The  sounding-stone.     (See  text.) 


Another  sounding  instrument. 


Sacred  axe.     (See  text.) 


Shell  (see  text)  or  helmet  (?). 


Standard  table. 

Leaves.     Frequent  marks. 

1 
Treasures  of  writing,  stone  for 
ink,  brushes  for  writing,  a  roll 
of  paper,  etc.  Found  as  a 
)  mark;  and  common,  as  are 
many  of  the  previous  designs, 
in  the  surface  decorations  of 
porcelains. 

J 


CHINESE  MARKS  AXI)  SYMBOLS. 


509 


Marks,  Symbols,  etc. 


fit 


MM 

i 

■  ■J 

MM      MM 

Bountiful  vase  for  the  wealthy 
and  noble.  Otherwise  trans- 
lated :  wealth,  honors,  and  in- 
tellect. 


Probablv  a  name. 


Valuable  vase  for  divining. 


These  three  combinations,  or 
arrangements  of  lines,  known 
as  the  eight  diagrams  of 
Fuh-hi,  frequently  occur  on 
Chinese  porcelain.  They  have 
reference  to  certain  mystic 
ideas,  utterly  unintelligible  to 
►  us,  relating  to  the  genders, 
the  principles  of  creation, 
the  origin  of  all  things,  etc., 
etc.  Chinese  philosophers 
profess  to  understand  their 
meaning  and  suggestions, 
and  the  Chinese  regard  them 
as  talismanic. 


Marks.  Symbols,  etc. 


Bamboo  leaves,  used  as  a  mark 
at  King-te-chin,  1573-1619. 
We  have  also  found  the 
leaves  used  as  an  exterior 
decoration  of  porcelain  dish- 
es which  we  believe  to  be 
Persian. 


Square  marks,  common  on  old 
specimens,  in  these  and  many 
other  forms. 


Paou :  precious. 


510 


MARKS   OS  JAPANESE   POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN. 


MAKKS  ON  JAPANESE  POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN. 


Marks  (if  Periods. 


4& 


l^K 


Een-tok,  13*70. 


tp  J>^   Bun-tin,  1372. 

fta  §i±  Ko-wa>  138°- 

pf*  TCi  Gcn-tin.  138°- 


Mei-tok,  1393. 


7X/S>yei'1894" 

•J^  JF  Show-tiyo,  1428. 

g    ^V  Yei-kiyo,  1429. 

£7  -^-.  Ka-kitsu,  1441. 
*-*     *.«/ 

"^£"    V>  Bun-an,  1444. 

435   *±» 

fei&,  Ho-tok,  1449. 

fe\  ?  Kiyo-tok,  1452. 

|K  i^ft  Ko-show,  1455. 

^T^-fP^  Chiyo-rok,  1457. 

|p     gr  Kwiiu-sliow,  14(50. 

Jp]  "Si  Bun-show,  1  166. 

j J£g=  O-nin,  1467. 

^H  _V  Bun-mci,  1469. 

^  Chiyo-kiyo,  1487. 


7 

|^^E  En-tok,  1489. 

JWf)3J\  Mei-°> 1492- 

Ilp~Vf    Bun-ki,  1501. 


Marks  of  Periods. 


show,  1504. 


j£  7?<  Yei-s 

ffc  7^    Dai-jei,  1521. 

t/K  J    Ki.VOIok'  1528- 

•^KyC  Dl-vei' 1532- 

fxi31±  K°"dsi' i555- 

?^7K  Yei-rok» 1568- 

^M^^  Gen-ki,  1570. 

tK  ^F  Ten-show,  1573. 
^T&~5<r  Bun-rok,  1592. 

T><~  /§5*    Kei-chiyo,  159G. 
/t^f  TTt    Gen-wa,  1615. 

/3^   |§&    Kwan-jei,  1624. 

i/k  JE   Show-ho,  1644. 

~*)£p£s    Kei-an,  1648. 

iff  B£J    Mei-reki,  1655. 

$§7   J^«   Man-dsi,  1658. 
O    la     Kwan-bun,  1661. 

^^^  Yen-po,  1673. 

^[j-f  "3?  Ten-wa,  1681. 

^  jj|  Tei-kiyo,  1684. 

^?7F,  Gen-rok,  1688. 

j\i  ft     IIo--vd'  1704- 


Marks  of  Periods. 


?>i?jE  show-toki i?n- 


m 


Kiyo-ho,  1717. 


V    "77"  Gen-bun,  1736. 

im  ^> 

ijfc  Wf.    Kwan-po,  1741. 
Yen-kiyo,  1744. 

Kwan-jen,  1748. 

/U  S?  Ilo-reki,  1751. 
tea     ^C. 

$0  5^  Mei-wa,  1764. 

J^X"2^  A""Jei.  !^2- 
^H^P    Ten-mei,  1781. 

7R?  VS>   Kwan-sei,  1789. 

TKU^l  Kiyo-wa,  1801. 

jK   \>    Bun-kwa,  1804. 

JOT  V>     Bun-sei,  1818. 
"fS  ^J~     Ten-po,  1834. 

"f t  5^v   Kokua'  1844- 
*Kjl    I-'--- 1848. 
yt    \>      Bun-se,  1854. 

)Hrt~]T\    Man-yen,  1860. 

llM>^^'      BUI1-kin!    18(il- 

f&flj]    Gen-di,  1861. 
Kei-o,  1865. 
Mei-di,  1868. 


MARKS   ON  JAPANESE   POTTERY  AND  PORCELAIN. 


511 


Enamel  Murks. 


\ft  I'A'      !  Enamel    mark.      Forgery  (?)    of 


dc  j 


j       Chinese  date  1645, 


Banko  Potteries. 


poa :  Great  Japan. 
Han-suki,  maker.     (Enamel.) 


7f\      I  Nipon :  Japan.    Next  signs  illeg- 


•  v  i/1\n     j 


s^. 


f 


ible. 


Eurok,  maker.     (Enamel.) 


J 


Awata  Potteries. 


/**$f>7C      I  Great  Japan. 

J.  &    ' 

i-L   ^tx      I  Dioto,  maker. 

m^v  J 

&^w(\   Tokio,  name  of  factory  ;  and 
Maker's  names. 


5T< 


^S? 


Ae-rako,  a  name. 


Ki-yo,  a  name. 


rO-J       Yu-ah-su-zan,  a  name. 

4-      1 

Banko  Potteries. 


Awata. 


>  Banko. 

■B     J 

flan 

Banko. 


Nipon,  Japan. 
Ari-nori,  name. 

Banko. 


Shing-en,  a  name. 


L"7Tl      Banko. 


Banko. 


Ci—-S  )■  Banko :  emi 

V, 


eminent  of  flowers. 


# 


Banko,  an  old  mark. 


Guso,  name. 


Maker's  mark. 


Bishu  Pure -lain. 


•m  J 


ion  Porce- 


'  .Bishu. 


Hiradoson. 

Shi-ae,  maker. 


—  ¥  Hiradoson.  and 


$£ 


maker's  name. 


512 


MARES   Ox\    JAPANESE  POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN. 


Hezen  Porcelain. 


R2     1 

v  j  Hezen,  or  Fisen. 

V) 


He-shu. 


Hezen : 
Haritikami,  maker. 


Hezen : 


.     1  2/  Shinpo,  maker. 

52  W*  I  Hezen: 

,.     .  Reksen,  maker. 

£0f  J 


West  Hezen : 
Nan-di,  maker. 


T  y/^     1  He-shu  (Hezen) : 
Tentai,  maker. 
Haridan,  factory. 


45, 


The  following  are  Hezen  factory  villages  : 

WrVnA  Great  mountain  between  rivers. 

WJjt|)  —  T,iree  mountains  between  rivers. 

W  2K/J0  Mountain  of  springs. 

Xp|  V^  Beautiful  upper  plain. 

^H^^  Beautiful  chief  plain. 

^Sf^P  Middle  1)lai"' 

nF  tIP-  ^onS  plain. 


Hezen  Porcelain. 


■gftTv  Great  vase. 

§1)  $  Medium  vase. 

«///  1t3  White  stream. 

ffifj  OX.  Street  of  painters  in  red, 

/^  z?j  The  cave. 

%W\  lVJ)  South  bank. 

/^Igj  Outside  tail. 

H}iS  Black  field. 

y'hjx  I&t  Firo-se. 

y/T<My~~  Itche-na-se. 

/iL  #  Imali- 


Kaga  Pottery  and 
Porcelain. 


K  \ 


Kutani :  the  nine  valleys 


<1L>    1 


Kutaui. 

J 

Kutani. 

Made  at  Kutani. 


<f  }  Made  at  Kutani. 

-vL  J 

M  7S.  >  Kagavo  Kutani. 

^  i'Ja.  The  same. 


*2 


}•  The  same. 


MARKS   ON  JAPANESE  POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN. 


513 


Kaea  Pottery  and 
Porcelain. 


^J^  VKagavo  Kutani. 

,£*  i 

^"*    \3  >•  Great  Japan,  made  at  Kutani. 

ft 

?_  !>  Kutani  Bok-zan. 

0/ 


Kutani :  Touzan. 


Porcelain  Mountain  (Touzan). 


I   \~  I        Rising-sun  Mountain. 


© 


Ponzan. 


\A\ 


Dio,  maker. 


m 


Great  Japan;    Garden   Mountain 
strong  pottery. 


To-o. 


££1 

^^  /n*      >  Made  at  Kutani,  long  house. 


Kutani 


Kaga  Potter;  and 
Porcelain. 


|H 

i 

Kill::::" 

IP 

Long  life. 


Happiness. 


Riches. 


Kioto  Pottery. 


Kioto. 


{  Kioto,     Japan  ;      Kinkousan, 
C      maker. 


Satsuma  Potte 


1 


4ft 

*'-  Kinkousan,  maker. 


Itsigaya,  a  place. 
Tai-zan,  maker. 

Tai-zan. 

1 
Tai-zan. 


Tai-zan. 


Den-ko,  name. 


\ 


33 


514 


MARKS   o.X  JAPANESE  POTTERY   AM)   PORCELAIN. 


Shtba  (T..k.  it  Pol- 
lers - 


if] 

/s^»     I      !  Hikomakoro,  maker  at  Sic- 


Awari  Porcelain. 

j  P  J-  Awan. 


tei,  in  Shiba. 


J-  Unknown. 


Symbols,  Inscrip- 
tions, Nomas,  etc. 


Happiness. 


I'll    Wealth. 


So-o. 


/    Kami,  maker. 


f 


Saeng-ets:    beautiful    moon 
name  of  celebrated  painter. 


H    1.: 

—  >  Ai-we,  name. 

P      J 


1 

*-u'  >  Spring  Mountain. 

J 


\U      1 
JS.      J 


Painter's    name    (Yama-moto 
|      Sho-tan). 


Symbols,  Inscrip 
lions,  Names,  etc. 


Long  life. 


Long  life. 


a*  2-  Rakou-masa,  maker. 

cm  pT  ~) 

!?£-  i  Huzi-nori,  name. 

&  J 

'y'    <p7  I  Imitation     of    Chinese    marks: 

—a      >._,  }■      "  Precious    property    of    Jo- 

M,\fs  J  M- 


V  Shin-fo-se-seki,  name. 


Seven  honorable  societies. 


s15  1 

^    Q        |  Hall  of  increase  of  peace,  liar- 


A**-»  ££."£  monv 


IB  if 


Wealth,  honors,  ami  long  youth. 


M 


Wealth,  honors,  and  long  life. 


MARKS   OX  JAPANESE  POTTERY  AND   PORCELAIN. 


515 


Symbols,  Inscrip- 
tions, Names,  etc. 

ifift 


Wealth,  honors,  and  long  life. 


•       '       >  Made  at  beautiful  garden. 


£ft 


pL-<r  ^C/      [The     same;      maker's     name 
JnU*  3"~      \      (Gos-ki)  added. 


iif       1 


XEJ 


>  On  ware  probably  Hezen. 


*trt  1 


Chinese  mark  of  1426  on  Hezen 


'IX  1 

^  M        I  Chinese  mark  of  1465  on  Hezen 


*B'A    D       J  -Great  .Japan ;  Hirak,  maker. 

*£■*■  J 

?  JR 1 

—rr.  -/-        Pavilion  of  Spring. 
,i,     "         Tsi-tze,  maker. 


Symbols,  Inscrip- 
tions, Names,  etc. 


Same  factory  name. 


'^yHT       i  Sanfo,   make 


&4 


i  uauw,  ma.ver.     These   are  on 
Nagasaki  wares. 


y 


Sito    in   Japan,   with    maker's 


7 


name ;  Nagasaki. 


fE 

ilffl 

i 

lata,  factory. 

ran 

Middle  mountain. 

iii 

Itsi-yama. 

ik 

" 

These,  and  many  other  square 
marks,  are  found  on  blue 
painted  wares. 


INDEX. 


Abaquesne,  Masseot,  potter,  205. 
Abbey,  Richard,  potter,  853,  855. 
A.  &,  '298. 
Abd-er-Rhama,  133. 
Abruzzi  pottery,  148,  17V. 
Absolon,  W.,  decorator,  883,  385. 
A.  C,  298. 

Adam,  Charles,  sculptor  and  pot- 
ter, 274. 
Adam,  warranted  Staffordshire, 

502. 
Adams,  "William,  potter,  345, 385 ; 

&  Co.,  345  ;    &  Sons,  potters, 

851  ;  J.,  385. 
Adler,  artist,  298. 
Africa,  Northern,  pottery  of,  131. 
Agostiuo  (called  Delia  Robbia), 

150,  151. 
Ahriman,  98. 
Air    pressure   used    in    making 

vases,  277. 
Aire  pottery,  211. 
A  la  corne  style,  206. 
Alabastros,  82. 
Alainbra  pottery,  63. 
Alaska  pottery,  388. 
Albarello,  the,"  146. 
Alcock,  Sir  R.,  258. 
xVlcora  pottery,   180;    porcelain, 

272. 
Alcoy  pottery,  180. 
Aldersea,  John,  potter,  351. 
Alessandro,  potter,  172. 
Alexandria,  tombs  at,  41  ;  Greek 

vase  from,  41. 
Algiers  pottery,  131. 
Alhambra,  108;  tiles,  IS3;  vase, 

133. 
Allemande,  Manufacture  de  Por- 

celaine  d',  284. 
Alluaud,  director,  284. 
Alphonso  I.,  Duke  of  Ferrara, 

176,  262. 
Alsatia,  212. 

Alten-Rothau  porcelain,  295. 
Altwasser  porcelain,  297. 
A.M.,  176. 

Amboiae  pottery,  182. 
America,   ancient   pottery,   388; 

European  specimens  found  in, 


419  ;  scenes  in,  on  English  pot- 
tery, 346,  349,  356,  361,  502. 

American  clay  used  at  Bow,  374. 

American  Pottery  Co.,  404. 

Amphora,  87,  82,  85. 

Amstel  porcelain,  300. 

Amsterdam,  pottery,  224;  porce- 
lain, 300. 

A.  N.,  295. 

Anatolia,  97. 

Anchor  mark,  209,  225,  366,  370, 
376,  454,  470,  492,  497. 

Ancient  pottery,  31. 

Andreoli,  Giorgio.     See  Giorgio. 

Angerstein  sale,  prices,  425. 

Angouleme  pottery,  211. 

Angouleme,  Manufacture  de  Ma- 
dame la  Duchesse  d',  285. 

Anspach,  pottery,  218;  porce- 
lain, 298. 

Anstette,  Francois,  potter,  203  ; 
Pierre,  painter,  203. 

Antonibon,  Giovanni  Battista, 
potter,  175,  270;  Pasqual, 
175;  Francesco,  175;  Gio- 
vanni Battista,  2d,  175,  2*70. 

A.  P.,  274. 

Apelles,  79. 

Apostle  mugs,  229. 

Appel,  Joh.  der,  potter,  453. 

Aprey  pottery,  196. 

Apt  pottery,  'i  96. 

A.  R.,  199,"204,  270,  291,  341. 

Arab  family  porcelain,  121. 

Aral)  pottery,  modern,  131. 

"  Arabian  Nights,"  1  is. 

Arabians  invade  Persia,  99 ;  their 
commerce,  100,  139;  adopt 
Persian  art,  1<><»  ;  their  com- 
merce with  China,  231. 

Aral  pottery,  226. 

Arbaces,  98. 

Arban,  porcelain  bottle  found  at, 
238. 

Arbois  pottery,  211. 

Architectural  pottery  in  Ger- 
many, 212. 

Architecture,  Saracen,  101. 

Aretine  ware,  93. 

Arctium,  93. 


Arfinger,  potter,  469. 

Argive  colonies,  4»>. 

Arimin  (Rimini),  172. 

Arizona,  ancient  pottery,  398. 

Arnstadt,  pottery,  219;  porce- 
lain, 489. 

Arias  porcelain,  282. 

Arrows,  mark,  482,  492. 

Arsaces,  99. 

Art,  Persian,  109;  Greek,  born  in 
Cyprus,  67  ;  influence  of  Sara- 
cen, 141 ;  influence  of,  on  char- 
acter, 430. 

Artist  painting  majolica,  152,154. 

Artists,  Greek,  81;  at  Sevres, 
475. 

Aryan  races,  98. 

Aryballos,  82. 

A.S.,  181. 

Aseos,  82. 

Asia  Minor  settled,  46. 

Asselyn,  Jan,  artist,  223. 

Assyrian  pottery,  45. 

Assyrian  symbols,  46. 

Astbury,  Thomas,  320,  849;  his 
son  Thomas,  349 ;  he  discovers 
the  Elers  secrets,  319  ;  discov- 
ers flint  stone-ware,  820. 

Athens,  figures  of,  87;  vases  of, 
88;  ceramic  quarters  of,  88. 

Augsburg  pottery,  217. 

Aumale,  Due  d\  205. 

Austria  porcelain,  286. 

Auxerre  pottery,  211. 

Avelli,  Fr.  Xanto,  L58. 

Avignon  pottery,  196. 

Avisseau,  potter,  195. 

Avon  pottery,  195,  196. 

Awari  porcelain,  258. 

Axe,  mark,  489. 

Aynsley,  John,  potter,  852.  385. 
Azulejo,  l"7. 

B,  199,  219,301,364. 

B.  A.,  179. 

Babylon,  date  of,  46. 

Babylonia  pottery,  45. 

Bacchus,  William,  potter,  351. 

Bacini,  142. 

Bactrian  kingdom,  99. 


518 


INDEX. 


Baddeley,  W.,  potter,  348;  R.  & 

.1..  potters,  8  19. 
Baden-Baden  porcelain,  299. 
Bagnall,  Charles,  potter,  350. 
Bailey,  William,  potter,  352. 
Bailey  &  Batkin,  potters,  385. 
Baireuth,  pottery,  216;  gres,22'7; 

porcelain,  298. 
Baker,  William,  potter,  351. 
Baking  in  furnaces,  29. 
Baldagsar,  potter,  163. 
Baldasara,  Manara,  artist,  171. 
Baltimore  pottery,  404. 

Baml -ware  of  Wedgwood,  328. 

Banko  pottery,  "258. 
Baranofka  porcelain,  302. 
Barberini  vase,  334. 
Barbin,  Francis,  potter,  27 4. 
Barcelona,  pottery,  136;   porce- 
lain, 272. 
Baretti,  author,  180. 
Barker,  John,  potter,  351. 
Barnes,  Zacb.,  potter,  353,  356. 
Baroni,  potter,  175,  270. 
Barr,  Flight,  &  Barr,  potters,  365. 
Karri,  Madame  Du,  278 ;  blue  cats 

Of,  279. 
Basaltes  of  Wedgwood,  328. 
Basle  pottery,  221. 
Bassano   pottery,    174;     marks, 

449. 
Bat  printing,  29,  306. 
Batista,  Giovanni,  175. 
Batkin,  W.,  potter,  352. 
Battersea  enamels,  prints  on,  355. 
Battista,  Franco,  145,  160,   161; 

Sforza,  156. 
Battista,  artist  at  Ferrara,  263; 

seeks  porcelain,  263. 
Bayard  &  Boyer,  potters,  196. 
Baveux  porcelain,  283. 
B.  B.  F.  F.,  171. 
B.  C,  179. 

Beacon  mark  of  Genoa,  179. 
Beauclerc,  Lady  Diana,  329. 
Beausobre,  author,  226. 
Beauty,  standards  of,  1 12. 
Beauvais  pottery,  196. 
Becar,  G.  J.,  potter,  210. 
Beck,  298. 

Becker,  Paul,  potter,  298. 
Beck,  Van,  widow,  potter,  163. 
Belgium,  pottery,  221 ;  porcelain, 

301  ;    marks,' lill,   191. 
Bell  in  pottery,  216. 

Bellarmine,  227. 
Bellerophon,  82. 
Belleville  porcelain,  285. 
Bellevue  (lottery,  196. 
Belper  X  Denby  pottery,  369. 
Belus,  temple  of,  48. 
Benedetto,  Maestro,  154, 1 76. 
Bengraf,  potter,  298. 
Beni-Hassan  tombs,  40. 


Benjamin  of  Tudela,  52. 

Bennington  pottery  and  porce- 
lain, 404. 

Benthal  pottery,  302. 

Bentley,  Thomas,  potter,  323. 

Berlin  porcelain,  296. 

BernaJ  sale,  154,  229,  424. 

Berthoin,  409. 

Bertolini,  174. 

Bertolucci,  Giuseppe,  potter,  104. 

Bethlehem,  eggs  from,  126. 

Betini,  potter,  171. 

Bettignies,  potter,  284. 

Beyerle,  Baron  de,  203. 

BiJlingsley, William,  painter,  3d:;, 
364,371,  372. 

Binet,  potter,  204. 

Binns,  R.  W.,  355. 

Birch,  Dr.  Samuel,  6,  42,  78,  79, 
90. 

Birch,  E.  J.,  potter,  348. 

Birch  mark,  347. 

Bird  mark,  362. 

Bishu  porcelain,  258. 

B.  L.,  301. 

Blateran,  Francoise,  potter,  199. 

Bleu-de-roi  color,  280. 

Bloor,  Robert,  potter,  369. 

Blue,  Egyptian,  37;  the  trans- 
mission color  in  art,  230 ;  fou- 
ette  of  China,  24r>;  souffle, 
245;  and  white  of  China,  24  5  ; 
of  Staffordshire,  245 ;  wares 
first  imported  in  Europe,  240. 

Blue  of  the  sky  after  rain,  240. 

Boch  brothers,  potters,  221,  301. 

Bohn  sale,  207. 

Boileau,  director,  275. 

Boisette-le-roi,  potterv,  21 1  ;  por- 
celain, 283. 

Bokhara,  tiles  at,  101. 

Bolt  &  Co.,  potters,  385. 

Bombylios,  82. 

Bone,  Henry,  enameller,  377, 380. 

Boneau,  potter,  182. 

Bonicelli,  director,  271. 

Bonnefoy,  Antoine,  potter,  1  9'.). 

Bonnin,  G.,  potter,  402. 

Books,  (lottery,  49. 

Booth,  Enoch, potter,  345;  Hugh, 
John,  Ephraim,  potters,  351, 
354. 

Bordeaux,  pottery,  1S2,  197; 
porcelain,  283. 

Borelly,  Jacques,  artist,  ISO. 

Borgo  San  Sepolchro  pottery, 
l'7o. 

Hornier,  Jacques,  potter,  205. 

Boselli,  Jaques,  artist,  1  so. 
BoSSU,  .lean,  decorator,  198. 
Bottcher,  John  Frederic,  chem- 
ist,   286;    discovers    his    red 
ware,    286 ;     discovers    hard- 
paste  porcelain,  287. 


Boulogne,  potterv,  211;  porce- 
lain, 283. 

Bourcier,  Bartholomew,  potter. 
201. 

Bourg-la-Reine  potterv,  197; 
porcelain,  282. 

Bourgouin,  modeller?  204. 

Bourne,  Ralph,  potter,  351. 

Bournes  [lotteries,  309. 

Boussemart,  Francois,  potter, 
198. 

Bow  porcelain,  372. 

Bowers,  G.  F.,  345. 

Bowls  bought  in  Jerusalem,  123; 
Hebrew,  51,  loo. 

Boyle.  Zachariah,  potter,  351. 

B  R,  197. 

Brad  well  pottery,  318. 

Brameld  mark,  308. 

Brancas  -  Lauragais  porcelain. 
283. 

Brandeis,  potter,  224. 

Brandenburg  brick -work,  213; 
porcelain,  297. 

Brandi,  Paulus  Francus,  artist, 
178. 

Breslau  pottery,  213. 

Bric-a-brac  shops,  4  1 6. 

Brick,  Egyptian,  37;  at  Babel, 
47  ;  of  Warka,  47  ;  of  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, 48  ;  Babylonian, 
49,  50;  Greek,  80;  Roman, 
92 ;  enamelled,  in  Germany, 
213;  at  Moscow,  220. 

Briequeville,  Jean,  potter,  205. 

Bridgwood  iV_  Son,  potters,  385. 

Briot,  Francis,  195. 

Brislington  pottery,  380. 

Bristol,  porcelain,  377;  potterv, 
380. 

Britain,  John,  potter,  499. 

Brizambourg  pottery,  2o7. 

Broilliet,  J.  L.,  potter,  4s:.. 

Brongniart,  Alexander,  270,  280. 

Brouwer, Hugo, potter,  163;  .Jus- 
tus, potter,  224;  widow,  potter, 
463. 

Brown,  Westhead,  Moore,  &  Co., 
potters,  349. 

Bruges  pottery,  1  < » l . 

Bruhl,  Count,  director,  289. 

Brument,  artist  ?  206. 

Brussels  porcelain,  301. 

Buchwald,  director,  225. 

Buckingham's  travels,  on  pot- 
tery, 349. 

Buen  Retire  porcelain,  268. 

Bulkeley  &  Bent,  potters,  385. 

Bunsen,  Chevalier,  33. 

Bunzlau,  Gres,  227. 

Buontalenti  said  to  discover 
porcelain,  263. 

Burke,  Edmund,  and  Bristol 
porcelain,  378. 


INDEX. 


519 


Burslem  pottery,  321,  342. 
Busch,  Huron,  engraves    porce- 
lain, 289. 
Butter -pots,  914. 
Bverley,    Thomas,    potter,    323, 
'331. 

B.  &  W.,  502. 

0,  203,  348. 

Cabinet  collections,  416. 

Cadmus,  7>>. 

( ladogan,  385. 

( !aen  porcelain,  283. 

I  laesare  da  Faenza,  160. 

Caffagiuolo  pottery,  151,  152. 

Caffo,  Gio.  Antonio,  potter,  171. 

Cairo,  mounds  of  pottery,  I-'!". 

Calata-Girone,  pottery,  136. 

Calcutta  pottery,  '201. 

Caldas  pottery,  181. 

Caldwell,  James,  potter,  343. 

Caligari,  Filippo  Antonio,  potter, 

164. 
Cambrai  pottery,  211. 
Cambrian  mark,  372. 
Cambrian  pottery,  M72. 
Camillo,  potter,  at  Ferrara,  177, 

263  ;   seeks  porn/lain,  263. 
Campani,  Ferd.  Maria,   painter, 

170. 
Campbell,  Colin  Minton,  potter, 

350. 
Campori,  Marquis  de,  on  Italian 

porcelain,  177,  262. 
Candeliere,    a,   decoration,   160, 

1  65. 
Candiana  pottery,  1  75. 
Capmany,  139. 

( !apo-di-Monte,  pottery,  1  79 ;  por- 
celain, 268. 
Cardan,  Jerome,  137. 
Carocci,  Luigi,  17<». 
Carthaginian  style,  7^1. 
Gartwright,  Richard,  potter,  314. 
Casa  Pirota,  171. 
Casali,  Antonio,  potter,  164. 
Case  <S:  Mort,  potters,  501. 
Castel-Durante  pottery,  156,  164. 
Castelli pottery,  177;  marks,  15  1. 
Castello,  ( !itta  di.     8a  Citta  di 

Castello. 
Castleford  pottery,  38 1. 

Castor  ware,  95. 

Catharine  11.  of  Russia,  278. 

Caughley  pottery  and  porcelain, 
362. 

Caulkins,  Miss,  "  History  of  Nor- 
wich," 400. 

Cavazzuti,  Ignacio,  potter,  177. 

C  C  C  with  C.  P.,  221. 

C.  D.,284. 

( lecrops,  70. 

Celadon,  Chinese,  236,  243. 

Celtic  pottery,  "aiS. 


Cencio,  Maestro,  168,  439. 

Central  America  pottery,  388. 

Cesnola,  General  L.  P.  Di,  7,  10, 
54,  236  ;  Collection.  See  Col- 
lections. 

C.  F,  295. 

C.  G.,  384,  385,  450. 

C.  &  G.,385. 

C.  &  H.,  385. 

Chaffers,  Richard,  potter,  353. 

Chaffers,  W.,  6,  218,  381. 

Chamberlain,  Humphrey,  potter, 
365;  Robert,  potter,  365. 

Chamberlain  &  Co.,  potters,  365, 
368;  decorate  Caughley  porce- 
lain, 363. 

Champfleury,  story  by,  223. 

Champion,  Richard,  potter,  377. 

Chanak-kalesi  pottery,  132. 

Chandernagor  pottery,  261. 

Chanon,  potter,  198. 

Chanou,  H.  F,  potter,  284. 

Chantilly  porcelain,  274. 

Chapelle,  Jacques,  potter,  208, 
282. 

Chapelle-des-Pots  pottery,  207. 

Chardin,  118. 

Chares,  artist,  82. 

Charles  V.,  portrait  of,  158. 

Charlottenburg  porcelain,  297. 

I  lharpentier,  Francois,  184. 

Chateau  de  Madrid,  152. 

Chateauneuf,  De,  potter,  208. 

Chatillon,  pottery,  211;  porce- 
lain, 284. 

Chatterly,  Charles  and  Samuel, 
potters,  348. 

Chaumont-sur-Loire  pottery,  197. 

I  Ihef-Boutonne  pottery,  210. 

Chelsea  porcelain,  375. 

Chertsey  Abbey  tiles,  311. 

Chetham  &  Wooley,  potters,  :;.">:!. 

Chiar-oscuro  decoration,  117, 
165. 

Chicanneau,  potter,  2ns  ;  family, 
272  ;  Pierre,  potter,  272  ;  a 
widow,  e-oes  to  Paris,  272,28  1  ; 
Dominique,  potter,  272. 

China,  Cardinal,  170. 

Child,  Smith,  potter,  345. 

Chimasra,  82. 

China,  porcelain  and  pottery, 
2:;i  ;  pottery,  250;  porcelains 
of  imperial  factory,  250  ;  best 
period,  235  ;  oldest  specimens, 
234  ;  Ming  Dynasty,  236  ;  re- 
productions, 23  I,  235  ;  dates 
and  marks,  252,  25  1,  503  ; 
symbols  on,  25  I  ;  trade  with 
Arabia  and  Persia,  100,  231. 

Chinese  books  on  the  art,  238. 

Chinese  labor  at  llereud,  295. 

Chinese  porcelains,  varieties,  old 
white,    2  13  ;      celadon,     243  ; 


crackle,  244  ;  blue,  245  ;  blue- 
and-white,  245  ;  polychrome, 
246  ;  chrysanthemo  -  poeoni- 
enne,  247;  green,  24  7;  rose, 
24  7;  yellow,  248;  various, 
248  ;  egg-shell,  249. 

Chinese  wares,  found  in  Egypt, 
236;  in  Italy,  164  ;  in  Persia, 
110;  by  Layard,  at  Zerin,  238; 
at  Arban,  236;  by  Cesnola,  in 
Cyprus,  236;  first  in  Holland, 
bine,  222. 

Chmeloff  pottery,  491. 

Choisy-le-Roy  porcelain,  284. 

Chozdko,  Professor,  117. 

Christian,  Philip,  potter,  353, 355. 

Chu,  the  venerable,  241 ;  the  pret- 
ty, 241. 

Church  of  St.  Sophia,  128;  tiles 
of,  128. 

Church  of  the  Nativity,  126. 

Church,  W.  A.,  on  tile's,  310. 

Churches,  pottery  architecture  of, 
212. 

Cimon  of  Cieonas,  75. 

Circles,  concentric,  61. 

<  'iron,  Ciquaire,  potter,  274. 
Citta  di  Castello  pottery,  148, 170. 
Cividale  del  Friuli,  142. 
Civilization  of  Creece,  79. 

C.  J.  M.  &  Co.,  351. 
Clarissy,  Pierre,  potter,  200. 
Clark,  Shaw,  &  Co.,  potters,  197, 

199. 
Clarke,  William,  potter,  197,  198. 
Clermont  pottery,  197. 
Clermont-Ferrand  pottery,  201. 
Clews,  .1.  &  K.,  p,,tters,  346. 
Clignancourt  porcelain,  282. 
Cloisonne  enamel  on  porcelain, 

259. 

Close  \  Co.,  potters,  385. 
t  loalporl  porcelain,  363. 
Cobalt,  first  in  China,  241. 
Coblentz  Gres,  227. 
Cobridge  pottery,  346. 
Cock-pit  Hill  pottery,  3  12. 
( loffee-pots  first  made,  223. 
Coffins,  pottery,  50,  101. 

<  'oimbra  pottery,  181. 
Coke,  John,  potter,  371. 

i  lolebrook-dale  porcelain,  363. 
Collections:  Abbott  |N.  Y.  Ili-t. 

Soc),  39,  4  1,  237;  Awry,  7; 
Due  d'Aumale,  205  ;  British 
Museum,  82,  172 ;  Bologna 
Museum,  135,  172;  S.  L.  M. 
Harlow,  217;  IJcrnal,  1 .",  I  ; 
Cesnola  (X.  V.  Metr.  Museum 
of  Art),  7,  54  ;  Hotel  de  Clu- 
nv,  171;  Correr  Museum,  Ven- 
ice, 171,  172  ;  Campana,  81  ; 
Castellani,  1  12,  167  ;  Foun- 
taine,   i">7,   168,   170;    Clad- 


>20 


JNDEX. 


stone,  107  ;  It.  Boe,  Jr.,  7, 
120  ;  Queen  < > f  England,  In;  ; 
Queen  of  Bolland,  407  ;  Mar- 
ryat,  160;  Mayer,  313  ;  Muse- 
um of  Practical  Geology,  Lon- 
don, 313  i  Rothschilds,  407  ; 
South  Kensington  Museum, 
135,  265  ;  Sevres  Museum, 
279 ;  Schwaab,  218;  Sigma- 
ringen  Museum,  218;  G. Trum- 
bull, 120;  Trumbull-Prime,  7: 
Duke  of  Wellington,  407  ;  C. 
I).  Warner,  106. 

Collections,  influence  of,  on  in- 
dustry, 306,  431. 

Collectors  and  collecting  in 
America,  406. 

<  lollectors,  eminent,  407. 
Cologne  Gres,  227. 
Colors  used  by  potters,  28. 
Combe,  Joseph,  potter,  199. 
Commerce  of  Saracens,  139,  231. 
Cones,  Egyptian,  39. 
Conrade,  Dominique,  potter,  201. 
Conrades,  potters,  201. 
Constantinople,  tiles  in,  107. 
Constantinova  pottery,  226. 
Cook-shop,  Cairene,  1»>7. 

( Jookworthy,  William,  potter,  376. 

Copeland,  William,  potter,  351; 
William  T.,  potter,  351. 

Copenhagen,  pottery,  225  ;  porce- 
lain, 302. 

Copper  -  lustred  wares,  129;  of 
Brislington,  380. 

( lordova,  L08. 

Corea  porcelain,  255. 

Corinthian  style,  7:!. 

Cornaro  pottery,  171  ;  mark,  449. 

Cornwall  clay  discovered,  353. 

Collier  sale  prices,   PJ7. 

Counterfeiters'  moulds,  93. 

Courcelles  pottery,  197. 

Courtille,  De  la,  factory,  284. 

Co/./.i,  Domenico,  potter,  27'». 

C.  P.,  169,221. 

0.  I!.,  341. 

Crackle,  Chinese,  2  I  I. 

<  'raft,  T.,  workman,  :;7:;. 

•  'ream-ware  of  Wedgwood,  328. 
(Veil  pottery,  1'.I7. 
Crescent  mark,  363,494,496. 
Crette,  I. ,  potter,  301. 
( Ireussen  pottery,  'l is. 
Crickets,  combats  of,  241. 
Cricq,  St.,  potter,  L97. 
Croissic,  Le,  pottery,  21 1. 
Cr,,<s  mark,  380,  136,   I  18,   154, 
0'.",  470,  194,  196. 

Crouch   ware,  318;    improved  b\ 

Aaron  Wedgwood,  321. 
Crowther,  potter,  373. 
Crowther  &  Weatherby,  potters, 

:i7::. 


Cruden's  Chapel  tiles,  310. 

Crusades,  141. 

Crystal  ware,  385. 

Ctesias,  98. 

Cuarto  Ileal,  108. 

Cullyn,  Abraham,  potter,  313. 

Custine,  Count,  203. 

Custode,  Pierre,  potter,  201. 

Custom-house  duties,  416. 

Cutts,  potter,  371. 

( luzco  pottery,  392. 

Cybele,  95. 

Cyclic  poets,  80. 

Cyffle,  artist,  197. 

Cylinders,  Babylonian,  4°. 

Cypress-trees  in  decoration,  104. 

Cyprus,  Phenician  art  in,  54; 
potteries  of,  57;  Creek  art  in, 
56,72;  discoveries  of  Cesnola 
in,  54. 

D,  198,  219,  370,  502. 

Dagoty,  Y.  L.,  potter,  285. 

Dahl,  potter,  219. 

Dali  (Cyprus),  63. 

Damascus,  97,  102;  wares,  124. 

Danaus,  7<>. 

Dangu  pottery,  211. 

Daniel  on  Persia,  99. 

Daniel,     Henry,     potter,     351  ; 

Ralph,  potter,  346. 
Darius,  99. 

Davenport,  John,  potter,  :;  15. 
Davillier,  Baron,  140,  200. 
Dawson,  potter,  385  ;  mark,  369. 
D.  D.  &  Co.  mark,  384. 
Decoration  of  porcelain  in  New 

York,  405. 
Decorations,  earliest  forms,  57. 
Decorator,    first    European,    on 

porcelain,  266. 
Deer,  the  spotted,  252. 
Delanee,  potter,  208. 
Delange,  M.,  190. 
Delaresse,  .lean,  potter,  199. 
Delarive,  artist,  300. 
Delft,  or    delf,  word  in    English 

use,  315. 
Delft   potters    dec-orate    Chinese 

porcelain,  300,  383. 
Delft  pottery,  222  ;    marks   on, 

224. 
Deluge  tablet,  49. 

Del    Veeehio,  potter,   1  18. 

Demi-grand  feu,  29. 

Demmin,  M.,  211,  212,  22  1,  226. 

Denby  pottery,  369. 

Denmark    pottery,   225;    marks, 

469;    porcelain,   802;    marks. 

491. 
Dennis,  Samuel,  potter,  401. 
Derby  porcelain,  369. 
Derbyshire  pottery  and  porcelain, 

369. 


Deruelle,  Pierre,  potter,  282. 
Desmuraille,  J.  1!.,  painter,  2i>8. 
Desvres  pottery,  197. 

De  Witte,  80. 

Dextra,  ] totter,  463. 

D'Hauearville,  96. 

Diane  de  Poictiers,   Faience   de, 

183. 
Dibutades,  potter,  71. 
Dick's  pepper-box,  353. 
Dietrich,  director,  289. 
Digne,  potter,  204. 
Digoin  pottery,  211. 
Dild  \  Guerhard,  potters,  285. 
Dijon,  199;  pottery,  211. 
Dilwyn,  Lewis  W.,  potter,  371. 
Dilwyn  &  Co.,  potters,  372. 
Diogenes,  84,  85. 
Diomede  Durante,  potter,  172. 
Diomeo,  artist,  173. 
Diruta  pottery,  172  ;  marks,  443. 
Dispersion,  the,  of  men,  45. 
Dixon,   Austin,   &   Co.,   potters, 

369. 
Doccia,  La,  porcelain,  269. 
Does,  Dirk  Van  der,  potter,  224. 
Dolphin  decorations,  166. 
Dome,  a  mark,  263. 
Dome  of  the  Lock,  102,  107. 
Domenigo,  potter,  174. 
Dommelaar,  Van,  artist,  223. 
Don  pottery,  384. 
Donaldson,  John,  decorator,  367. 
Doni,  Seigneur  de  Goult,  potter, 

196. 
Doorne,  Van,  potter,  463. 
Dorez,    tiarthclemi,    potter,    198, 

273  ;  Francois  L.,  potter,  210; 

N.  A.,  potter,  455. 
Doric  style,  73. 
Douai  pottery,  211. 
Doulton  &  Co.,  potters,  339. 
D.  P.,  197,  221. 
Drake,  Sir  William  R.,  174,  175, 

270. 
Dresden, pottery,  219;  porcelain, 

286. 
Drinkwater,  James,  potter,  353. 
Dryander,  potter,  283. 
D.S.,  221. 

Dubois  brothers,  potters,  274. 
Du  Cange,  128. 
Duesbury,  William,  potter,  369; 

buys  Chelsea,  375  :    William, 

2d]  potter,  369. 
Dudson,  potter,  385. 
Duisburg,  potter,  198. 
Dunderdale,  David,  potter,  384 
Dunkerque  pottery,  197. 
Dupas,  Enoch,  potter,  207. 
Dupont,  workman,  21<>. 
Diirer,  Albert,  14t'»,  21  1. 
Duvn,  Van,  potter,  463. 
D.  V,  197. 


INDEX. 


.21 


Dwarf,  image  of,  03. 
Dwight,   Dr.  John,   potter,  319, 
339  ;    Margaret,  potter,  3  Hi. 

iiagle,  American,  mark,  502. 

Eastlake,  Sir  C,  156. 

Eastwood  pottery,  348. 

Ebelman,  director,  277. 

Ecouen,  Chateau  de,  205. 

Edinburgh  pottery,  501. 

Edwards,  William,  potter,  352. 

Eel-skin  color,  250. 

Egg-colored  porcelain,  242. 

Egg-plant,  violet  color,  250. 

Egg-shell  porcelain,  251,  257. 

Eggs  in  mosques,  126. 

Eglert,  Jo.  Tobias,  potter,  216. 

Egypt,  pottery,  31 ;  Chinese  bot- 
tles found  in,  236  ;  plants  of, 
44;  enamel,  36;  modern  pot- 
tery, 131;  pottery  found  in 
Italy,  89  ;  scarabsei,  32. 

Egypto-Phenician  style,  57. 

Ehrenreich,  Dr.,  potter,  225. 

Ehrhardt,  Elias,  potter,  221. 

E.  I.  B.,  348. 

Elbogen  porcelain,  295. 

"  Elder  brother"  porcelain,  239. 

Electric  telegraph  of  Ralph  Wedg- 
w 1,  321. 

Elers  brothers,  potters,  230,  318; 
John  Philip,  318;  David,  319. 

Elizabethan  ware,  318. 

Elizabetta  Gonzaga,  156. 

Elkin,  Knight,  &  Co.,  potters,  352. 

Ellis,  Mr.  Thomas,  51. 

Emblem  hooks,  designs  from,  221. 

Enamel  on  metal,  of  China,  254 ; 
Japan,  259;  Limoges,  190; 
called  porcelain  in  China,  Ml. 

Enamel  on  pottery,  25  ;  stannif- 
erous, 25  ;  Egyptian,  35  ;  As- 
syrian, 48 ;  Greek,  89  ;  Sara- 
cen, 106  ;  Italian,  145  ;  Ger- 
man, 211;  transmission  of  the 
art,  100. 

Enamelled  pottery,  25. 

England,  pottery  and  porcelain, 
304;  ancient  pottery,  307;  Cel- 
tic pottery,  308 ;  Roman  pot- 
tery, 308  ;  Saxon  pottery,  309  ; 
Norman  pottery,  309. 

Epernay  pottery,  211. 

Epichysis,  82,  sii. 

Epiktetos,  artist,  81. 

Epron,  M.,  potter,  210. 

Ergotimos,  potter,  82. 

Este,  Isabella  D',  176. 

Este  pottery,  175. 

Etiolles  porcelain,  283. 

Etruria,  ancient  pottery,  90. 

Etruria,  Wedgwood's,  323. 

Etruscan  pottery,  88,  90. 

Even,  Suter  v.  d.,  potter,  461. 


Evers,  Gerrit,  potter,  218. 
Ewer,  Peruvian,  393. 
Exekias,  potter  and  artist,  81. 

F,  199,263,285,298. 

Fabriano  pottery,  173. 

Faenza  pottery,  lTo. 

Faiance,  French  town,  170. 

Faience,  definition  of,  27  ;  deriva- 
tion of,  170;  line,  184;  d'<  (iron, 
183;  de  Henri  Deux,  183  ;  a  la 
corne,  206  ;  patriotique,  202. 

Fantuzzi,  Antonio,  267. 

Fauchier,  potter,  199. 

Fauquez,  Pierre  J.,  potter,  207, 
221 ;  Pierre  Francois  J.,  221. 

F.  C,  176. 

Febvrier,  Jacques,  potter,  198. 

Federigo  da  Montefeltro,  155. 

Fell  mark,  369. 

Fell  &  Co.,  mark,  369. 

Fell,  T.  cV  Co.,  potters,  369. 

Fells,  Newcastle,  mark,  369. 

Felspar,  234. 

Fenton,  potter,  404. 

Fenton  pottery,  351. 

Fenton  stone  works,  etc.,  351. 

Fenton  Low  pottery,  323. 

Fenton'.s  enamel,  404. 

Ferrara,  pottery,  170;  porcelain, 
2(12. 

Ferro,  Jehan,  potter,  lsii. 

Ferrybridge  pottery,  384. 

Feuillet,  ML,  potter,  285. 

F.  F.,  219,  271. 

F.  G.,  385. 

Fiegel,  F.  G.,  decorator,  219. 

Figure  of  Isis,  44. 

Figures,  Osirian,  39  ;  from  Tana- 
gra,  NT  ;  in  Italian  pottery,  ITS. 

Fillon,  M.  Benjamin,  183. 

Finger-rings,  invention  of,  71. 

Fireplaces  with  tiles,  224. 

Fire-worshippers,  99. 

Fischer,  Mori/.,  potter,  294  ;  Chris- 
tian, potter,  295. 

Fish  mark,  251,  3( hi,  190. 

Fi/en  pottery  and  porcelain,  257. 

Fiaxinan  employed  by  Wedg 
wood,  323. 

Fleischmann,  C.  W.,  potter,  216. 

Fleischmann's  Fabrik,  216. 

Fleur-de-lis  mark,  199,  2 IV,  269, 
350,  156,  458,  170. 

Flight,  .Joseph  and  -John,  potters, 
365. 

Flight  &  liarr,  potters,  3(1.-). 

Flight  into  Egypt,  164. 

Flint,  powdered,  use  discovered. 
320. 

Florence,  pottery,  149 ;  porcelain, 
268  ;  Fa  Doccia,  269. 

I'M  ME  DII,  268. 

Fo,  the  dog,  252. 


Foerstler,  artist,  294. 
Fong-hoang,  252. 
Fontainebleau  porcelain,  483. 
Fontana  family,  157;  Orazio,  156, 

157,  177;    Camillo,  157,  177  ; 

Xieola,  157;  Guido,  157;  Nic- 
ola second,  157. 
Fontebasso,  C.  ^  A.,  potters,  271. 
Fontenav  pottery,  210. 
Forasassi,  .lean,  potter,  204. 
Ford,  Mr.,  108. 
Foresi,  Dr.,  on  Italian  porcelain, 

263. 
Forks  mark,  488. 
Forli  pottery,  1T2  ;  marks,  1  IT. 
Forms  of  Creek  vases,  82,  83. 
Forterie  pere  et  his,  potters,  197. 
Fortnum,  Mr.,  114,  125,  127,  139, 

142,  148,  162,  168,  1  To. 
Fossils  counterfeited  in  pottery, 

•l  20. 
Fouque,  director,  455. 
Fouquet,  L.  C,  artist,  298. 
Founder,  Pierre,  potter,  455. 
F  &  R.,  295. 
F.  R.,  171,  181. 
France,  pottery,  182;  marks,  453  ; 

porcelain,  2T2  ;  marks,  483. 
Francesco,   Maria  della  Rovere, 

156. 
Francesco  Xanto,  158. 
Francisque,  Jehan,  potter,   182, 

199. 
Franco,  Battista,  145,  160,  161, 

175. 
FYancois  vase,  81. 
Frank,  Richard,  potter.  380. 
Frankenthal,  pottery,  220 ;   por- 
celain, 297. 
Franklin,  statuette  of,  343  ;  ovals 

of,  348. 
Frati,  Signor,  171. 
Freeling  <y,  Co.,  potters,  385. 
Freiburg  pottery,  221. 
Frog  in  mug,  369. 
Frotte  d'or,  252. 
Five,  Thomas,  potter  and  artist, 

372,  874. 
Fulda  porcelain,  298. 
Fulham  pottery,  339. 
Furnaces,  29. 

Fiirstenberg  porcelain,  298. 

F.  X.  A.  R.,  L59. 

Gr,  299,  300,  384,  385,  451. 

G.  A.  F.  F.,  271. 

Gambrin,  Julian,  potter,  L82, 199. 
Gardner,  potter,  302. 
Garner,  Robert,  potter,  351. 
Garret,*  New  England,  421. 

Caildrv,  Alexandre,  painter,  208. 

Gl 'It/,  potter,  219,  297. 
Cenest,  potter,  204. 

Geneva  mark,  300. 


522 


INDEX. 


Gennep  pottery,  -18. 
Genoa  pottery,  1 7'.' ;  marks,  1 19. 
Gentile,  Bernardino,  artist,  1 78. 
Gera  porcelain,  299. 
Gerault-Daraubert,  potter,  282. 
Gerhard,  96. 

German  wares  in  New  Fork,  121. 
Germany,  pottery,  211;    porce- 
lain, 2sn;  art  character  of,  22*7. 
Gerona,  272. 
G.  F.  1!.,  345. 
Ghisi  Giorgio,  267. 
Ghooleh,  116. 

Giant  painted  on  delft,  223. 
Gibson  sale  prices,  428. 
Gide,  artist,  300. 
Giese,  putter,  220. 
Gilding,  29. 

Giles,  decorator,  367,  373. 
Ginori,  Marquis,  potter,  269. 
Gioanetti,  or   Giovanetto,  Prof., 

potter,  '271. 
Giorgio,  Maestro,  165  ;  lustre  of, 

165  ;    Mr.  Robinson  on,  166  ; 

factory  of,  167. 
Girard,  Pierre,  potter,  210. 
Girolamo,  Maestro,  163. 
Giulio  da  Urbino,  artist,  172. 
Giulio  Romano,  266. 
Giustiniani,  potter,  148,  178. 
G.  L.,  216. 
Glass,  Joseph,  potter,  317,  348; 

John,    potter,    348;    John,    & 

Sous,  potters,  348. 
Glass  stained  by  Yeit  Hirschvo- 

gel,215. 
Glazed  pottery,  24  ;  in  Germany, 

211. 
(ila/.es,  how  made,  28 ;  Egyptian, 

43  ;    iridescent,  90  ;    Saracen, 

lor,, 
(dot,  Richard,  potter,  209. 
Gluer,  artist,  216. 
Godenius,  potter,  225. 
Goggingen  pottery,  219. 
"  Co  home,  potters,"  etc.,  320. 

Coin irt  pottery,  211. 

Gold-lustred  wares,  129. 
Gordon,  R.  G.,  potter,  385. 
Gotha  porcelain,  299. 
Gothenburg  pottery,  225. 
Gottskowski,  banker  and  potter, 

296. 
Gouda,  Martin,  potter,  461. 
Gouffier,Artur,  L83;  Claude,  184. 
Goull  pottery,  L96. 
C.  P.,  266. 
G.  R.,341. 

Graeco-Phenician  style,  57. 
Graffito  ware,  l  i-j,  l  13,  148. 
Grainger,   George,   potter,  368; 

Thomas,  potter,  368 ;    Lee,  & 

Co.,  potters,  368;   C.  \   Co., 

868  ;  ,v.  Wood,  potters,  368. 


Granada,  108,  133,  134. 

Grand  ten,  29. 

Grave  tablets,  pottery,  316,  317. 

Graybeards,  227. 

Greatback,  William,  potter,  351. 

Greber,  artist,  216. 

Greece,  68;  settlement  of,  69; 
art  born  in  Cyprus,  67  ;  civil- 
ization, 69,79;  tastes,  79  ;  ar- 
tists, 81. 

Creek    vases,    classification    of, 

77  ;    subjects  on,  80  ;    forms 
of,    82,  83  ;    dates    of    styles, 

78  ;  inscriptions  on,  84. 
Green  brothers,  potters,  384. 
Green  Don  Pottery,  mark,  384. 
Green,    Guy,    potter,    353,    354  ; 

John,   potter,    384 ;    Stephen, 

potter,  385. 
Green  man,  the,  171. 
Greiner,  G.,  potter,  299. 
Greinstadt  porcelain,  298. 
Grenzhausen  Gres,  227. 
Gres  cerame,  25,  226. 
Gres  de  Flandres,  227. 
Griffin  mark,  368. 
Griff o,    Sebastian,    potter,    182, 

199. 
Grisaille,  decoration  in,  147,  165. 
Grolier  bindings,  185. 
Grosbreitenbach  porcelain,  299. 
Gros  Caillou  porcelain,  483,  485. 
Gross,  modeller,  285. 
Grue    family    of    artists,    177; 

Franc.  Ant.  Xayerius,  178. 
G.  S.,  17'.». 

Guagni,  Francesco,  artist,  177. 
Guatemalan  decoration,  62. 
Gubbio  pottery,  156,  165;  marks, 

436,  438,  440. 
Guerhard,  potter,  285. 
Guichard,  Ant.,  potter,  485. 
Guido  Durantino,  157. 
Guido  Merlino,  160. 
Guid'  Ubaldo  I.,  Duke,  156. 
Guid'  Ubaldo  II.,  Duke,  156. 
Gulena,  M.,  potter,  303. 
Gunther  &  Co.,  385. 
Gustafsberg  pottery  and  Parian 

ware,  225. 
G.  \\\,  372. 

Uackwood,  W.,  modeller,   285, 

338. 
Eackwood,  potter,  385. 
Uackwood  iV.  Co.,  potters,  385. 
Hseren,  Van,  potter,  224. 
Baffringe,  potter,  283. 
Bagenau  pottery,  210. 
Hague,  the,  porcelain,  801. 
Baidinger,  potter,  295. 
Hamilton,  Sir  William,  335. 
Bammelkerz,  Paul  us,  potter,  2  is. 
Hancock,  John,  mug,  361,  422. 


Hancock,  potter,   369;    Robert, 

engraver,  355,  365. 
Banford,  Isaac,  potter,  401. 
Bangest-Genlis,  Helene  de,  is:;. 

Banging  plates,  111  ;  frame  for, 
415. 

Banlej  pottery,  347. 

Hannong,  Paul,  285, 297;  Charles 
Francis,  potter,  209 ;  Paul  An- 
toine,  potter,  210;  Balthazar, 
potter,  210;  Pierre  Antoine, 
potter,  210,  283,  285  ;  Joseph 
Adam,  potter,  210;  Paul  and 
Joseph  Adam,  at  Frankenthal, 
220. 

Barburg  pottery,  217. 

Harding,  potter,  385. 

Harding,  W.  &  J.,  potters,  350. 

Hard  pottery,  24,  25. 

Bard-paste  porcelain,  26. 

Harlequin  scry  ices,  Jus. 

Barley,  T.,  potter,  385;  J.,  pot- 
ter, 353. 

Harmony  of  colors,  104,  411. 

Harrison,  John,  potter,  323  ;  G., 
potter,  385. 

Hartley,  Greens,  &  Co.,  potters, 
384." 

Hartog,  potter,  224. 

Ilaslem,  John,   on   Derby,    364, 

;;7<>. 

Hiiuslein  of  Adam  Kraft,  214. 

Baynes,  George,  potter,  371. 

H.B.,  221. 

H.  CD,  467. 

H.  E.,  221. 

II.  E.  A.M.  I.  T.,  221. 

Heath,potter,discovers  flint  stone- 
ware, 320;  John  and  Christo- 
pher, potters,  342  ;  Thomas, 
potter,  352;  William,  potter, 
342. 

Hebrew  bowls,  51,  100;  colleges 
at  Baghdad,  53  ;  pottery,  68. 

Heintzman,  artist,  298. 

Hele,  Peter,  first  watch -maker, 
214. 

Hellenic  colonies,  46. 

Belmhack,  Abraham,  painter, 
2  Hi. 

Belsingburg  pottery,  226. 

Hemphill,  potter,  403. 

Henri  Deux  ware,  183. 

Henry  IV.,  Duke,  monument  at 
Breslau,  213. 

Hens,  chickens,  etc.,  on  Chinese 
porcelain,  241. 

Herbert,  Francois,  potter,  204. 

llerculaneum  pottery,  356. 

Hercules  and  Antaeus,  168;  Her- 
cules and  the  lion,  76. 
Herend  porcelain,  294. 
Hereng,  potter,  198. 

lleiingle,  potter,  198. 


INDEX. 


523 


Herodotus,  88,  98. 
Herr,  artist,  294. 
Hesse-Cassel  porcelain,  489. 
Hesse-Darmstadt  porcelain,  489. 
Hewelcke  &  Co.,  potters,  270. 
Hevlin,  Edward,  potter,  372. 
H.  F.,  450. 
HH  A,  211. 
Hicks,  Meigh,  &  Johnson,  potters, 

349. 
Hicks  &  Meigh,  potters,  349. 
Hilditch  &  Son,  potters,  501. 
Hiradoson  porcelain,  258. 
Hirschvogel,  Veit,   potter,   213; 

Augustine,  potter,  215;   Veit, 

the  younger,  215. 
Hispano-Moresque  pottery,  133 ; 

marks,  451. 
Hizen  pottery  and  porcelain,  257 ; 

Shonsui,  potter  at,  26  1. 
Hochst  pottery,  219;  porcelain, 

297. 
.  Hoe,  Mr.  Robert,  Jr.,  120. 
Hoffman,  Dr.  J.,  on  Japan,  256. 
Hoidship,   Richard,   potter,   364, 

365;  Josiah,  potter,  365. 
Holland  pottery,  222;  porcelain, 

300 ;  first  Chinese  porcelain  in, 

246. 
Hollins,  Michael  Daintry,  potter, 

350;  T.  &  J,  potters,'  348;  T. 

J.  &  R.,  potters,  34s ;  Richard, 

potter,    348 ;    Samuel,   potter, 

349. 
Holmos,  82. 

Holy  House  of  Loretto,  161,  173. 
Holy  Land,  68. 
Home  decoration,  4lo. 
Homer,    69,    75,   80;    books   of, 

arranged,  80 ;  in  a  pottery,  88. 
Homer,  Mr.,  34. 
Honore,  Edward  and  Theodore, 

potters,  285. 
Hooper  &  Phillips   on  Oriental 

marks,  6,  260. 
Hoorn,  Van,  potter,  463. 
Hoppfer,  Jerome,  artist,  229;  Da- 
vid, artist,  229;  Lambert,  ar- 
tist, 229. 
Hop-vine  mark,  229. 
Horoldt,  director,  289. 
Horse's  lungs  color,  250. 
Honda  pottery,  22  f. 
Hoxter  porcelain,  298. 
II.  P.,  221. 
U.S.,  219. 
H.  &  S.,  385. 
Hubert,  artist,  300. 
Hubertsberg  pottery,  219. 
Hueber,  Louis,  author,  220. 
Huet,  J.  L.  &  B.,  modellers,  203. 
Humble,  Green,  &  Co.,  potters, 

384. 
Hungary  porcelain,  286. 


Hunger,  Conrad,  artist,  293. 

Hustin,  Jacques,  potter,  197. 

Huyvetter  sale,  229. 

Hyacinth,  104. 

Hydria,  82. 

Hylton  pottery,  369. 

I.  B.,  205. 

I.  K.  I!.,  386. 

I.  G.  S.,  219. 

[le-d'Elle  pottery,  210. 

Iliad,  80. 

Illuminations  of  MSS.,  141. 

Illuminators,  153,  165. 

Imari  pottery  and  porcelain,  257. 

[mperatrice,  manufacture  de  S. 

M.  1',  285. 
Improved     Feltspar    Porcelain, 

364. 
Incised  wares,  62,  142,  143,  1  18, 

393,  398. 
India  pottery  and  porcelain,  260. 
India  ware,  261. 
Indian,  North  American,  potterv, 

398. 
Indo-China  porcelain,  252. 
Industrial  value  of  beauty,  431. 
Inghiram'i,  96. 
Initial    letters,   153 ;    copied    on 

pottery,  186. 
Inscriptions,   Christian,   43  ;    on 

Roman  tiles,  92 ;    on   Roman 

pottery,    94,    95;     on     Greek 

vases,  76,  84;   Etruscan,  91; 

on  Roman  cups  and  lamps,  9  1  ; 

on  Persian   surahai,   116;    on 

Central  American  vase,  396. 
Invention  of  pottery  images,  71. 
I  P,  154,  436. 
Iphitus,  80. 
Iran,  history  of,  98. 
l-is,  figure  of,  44. 
Isle  St.  Denis  porcelain,  285. 
I.  T.,  349. 
Italy,  pottery,  140  ;  marks,  435  ; 

porcelain,  261. 

Jackfield  pottery,  362. 

Jacoba-kanetjes,  229. 

Jacqueline  of  Hainault,  229. 

Jacquelines,  229. 

Jacquemart,  III,  lis,  126,  172, 
177,  lso,  186,  189,  201,  203, 
211,214,  260. 

Jacques,  Ch.  S.,  potter,  209. 

Jacques  &  Jullien,  potters,  19*7, 
209,  282. 

lade,  porcelain  compared  to,  239. 

Iaus/,,\'an  del'  Kloot,  potter,  163. 

Japan,  pottery  and  porcelain, 
256  ;  derives  art  from  China, 
257,  265;  red  stone-ware,  258; 
oldest  porcelain,  25'.';  enam- 
el  on    metal,   259  ;    cloisonne 


enamel  on  porcelain,  259; 
marks,  2(iu,  5 In. 

Japanese  experts  on  Italian 
porcelain,  264  ;  styles  copied 
in  Italy,  265  ;  envoys  to  the 
Cope,  265. 

Jasper-wares  of  Wedgwood,  328. 

Jeronimo,  Maestro,  172. 

Jersey  City  pottery,  342,  404. 

Jerusalem,  tiles  at,  102  ;  porce- 
lain found  in,  121. 

Jessamine  flower,  104. 

Jewelled  porcelain  of  Sevres, 
27'.i. 

Jewish  bowls,  51. 

Jews,  decree  of  Frederick  con- 
cerning, 296. 

J  L  P  in  script  monogram,  455. 

Jobson,  potter,  386. 

John  Bull  and  Napoleon  on 
pitcher,  356. 

Johnson,  Dr.,  complains  of  cost 
of  porcelain,  371. 

Johnson,  Thomas  and  Joseph, 
potters,  352. 

Jonquille  color,  280. 

J.  ft.,  349. 

•I.  R.  &  Co.,  364. 

J.  Rose  &  Co.,  364. 

Judgment  of  Paris,  168. 

Julien,  M.  Stanislas,  233. 

Jullien,  potter,  197,  209,  2S2. 

J.W.  Ii.,  349. 

J.  Y.,  386. 

J£.aga  potterv  and  porcelain,  257. 

Kalpis,  82. 

Kameiros,  tombs  of,  127. 

Kampfer,  265. 

Kandler,  modeller,  290. 

Kanopos,  91. 

Kaiitharos,  82,  86. 

Kaolin,  2ii,  234 ;  samples  from 
America  used  at  Bow,  374  ; 
discovered  in  Saxony,  -2s7  : 
discovered  in  Fiance,  275. 

Karamania,  1 12. 

Karchesion,  82. 

Karical  potterv,  261. 

Ka-han,  111. 

KauH'inan,  Angelica, painter,  290. 

Kean,  Michael,  potter,  369. 

Ceding,  Anthony,  potter,  345  ; 
A.  &  I-:.,  potters,  345;  Ed- 
ward,   potter,    "■  19  :     .lame-, 

potter,  349;  Toft,  &  Co.,  pot- 
ters. :;|s. 

Kees,  G.  Solomon,  potter,  216. 

Kelebe,  82. 

Keller  &  Cuerin,  198. 

Kerameikoi,  Athens,  88. 

Kerr  .V  Binns,  potters,  865. 

Kevser,  Cornelius,  potter,  461, 

K.  ,v.  C,  198,  295. 


524 


INDEX. 


Khoojah,  I  16. 

Khorassan,  99. 

Kiel  pottery,  225. 

Kielle,  A.,  potter,  463. 

Kiev  pottery,  226. 

King  of  Prussia  mugs,  355,  366. 

King-te-tchin  porcelain,  233 ; 
imperial  factory  at,  234. 

Kirman,  brick  of,  101. 

Kleynoven,  ().,  potter,  461. 

Klitias,  artist,  si,  82. 

Kloster  Vielsdorf,  porcelain, 489. 

Koburger,  printer,  213. 

Koom  pottery,  114. 

Kordenbusch,  G.  F., potter,  216; 
Andreas,  potter,  216. 

Korneloff  brothers,  potters,  302. 

Korzec  porcelain,  303. 

Kotyliskos,  82. 

K.  P.  M.,291. 

Kraft,  Adam,  iron-worker,  214. 

K rater,  82,  85. 

Kraut,  Hans,  potter,  216. 

Kronenburg  pottery,  219  ;  porce- 
lain, 298. 

Kubbet-es-Sukrah,  102,  108. 

Kunersberg  pottery,  225. 

Kunt/.e,  Christian  Gottlieb,  paint- 
er, 297. 

Kni'inni,  temple  of,  55,  76,  77. 

Kutani  pottery  and  porcelain,  257. 

Kuylick,  potter,  4G1. 

Kyathos,  82. 

Kylins,  252. 

Kylix,  70,  72,  82,  85,89. 

L,  is  1,436. 

Laborde,  96, 180. 

La  China  factory,  271. 

Lac,  lacquer,  258. 

Lafayette,  landing  of,  at  Castle 
Garden,  346. 

La  Fiatta  pottery,  148. 

Litrrte,  potter,  2S5. 

I. akin  iV  Poole,  potters,  347. 

La  Manclia  porcelain,  272. 

Lambeth  pottery,  339. 

Lambrequin  st\  le,  206. 

Lamoninary,  potter,  485. 

Lamprecht,  artist,  294. 

Lamps  found  in  Egypt,  43;  Ro- 
man, 92,  94,  95. 

Lane  Delph  pottery  and  porce- 
lain, 351. 

Lane-end.     Set  Longton. 

Lanfranco,  Jacomo,  163. 

Lanfray,  director,  283. 

Langres  pottery,  21 1. 

Lapis-lazuli  blue,  245,  280. 

Laroze,  potter,  208. 

La  Seinie  porcelain,  283. 

Lathe  in  potteries,  30. 

Lattice  patterns  on  tiles,  103. 

Lawn,  Van,  potter,  224. 


Lauragais  porcelain,  283. 

Lausanne  pottery,  221. 

Layard,  Mr.,  49,  50,  51,  100; 
finds  porcelain  at  Arlian,  236  ; 
at  Zerin,  238. 

Lazari,  175. 

Lazzia,  Jean  J.,  potter,  284. 

L.D.,  210. 

Leeds  pottery,  384. 

Lefebvre,  Hubert,  French  potter, 
1 98. 

Lei,  Pietro,  da  Modena,  potter, 
177. 

Leibolt,  George,  potter,  216. 

Leihamer,  Abraham,  artist,  225. 

Leipsie  pottery,  212. 

Leithner,  chemist,  293. 

Lekane,  82. 

Lekkerkerk,  Delft  ware  at,  223. 

Lekythos,  82. 

Lelong,  Nicolas,  potter,  201. 

Lepaste,  82. 

Les  Islettes  pottery,  211. 

Lheraule  pottery,  198. 

Library  of  pottery,  49. 

Licouli,  tower  of,  233,  249. 

Life,  sign  of.     See  Swastika. 

Light-house  mark,  179. 

Ligron  pottery,  211. 

Lille  pottery,  198;  porcelain,  273. 

Lily  work,  44. 

Limbach  porcelain,  299. 

Limoges  pottery,  198;  porcelain, 
284  ;  decorated  in  New  York, 
405. 

Limosin,  enameller,  190. 

Lindener,  artist,  290. 

Lindus  potteries,  129. 

Lion  mark,  301. 

Lion,  Persian,  105. 

Lisbon  pottery,  181. 

Lithophanie,  296. 

Littler,  William,  potter,  321. 

Liverpool  pottery  and  porcelain, 
353. 

Lizard  on  Peruvian  pottery,  390. 

L  O,  2<)(>. 

Locker  &  Co.,  potters,  369. 

Lockett,  John  and  Timothy,  pot- 
ters, 345. 

Locre,  Jean  Baptist,  potter,  284. 

Lodi  pottery,  170;  marks,  149. 

Loftus,  Mr.,  50. 

Lonesome  Lake  I  'abin  dinner  ser- 
vice, 408. 

Long  Island,  Delft  tiles  on,  223. 

Long  Island  City  porcelain,  404. 

Longport  pottery  and  porcelain, 
345. 

Longton  pottery,  352. 

Loosdrecht  porcelain,  300. 

Loretto,  majolica  at,  160,  173. 

L.  P.,  221,  284. 

Louis  XIV.  uses  Rouen  ware,  207. 


Lowesby,  386. 

Lowestoft  pottery  and  porcelain, 
380. 

Lubeck,  bricks  at,  213. 

Lubke,  Mr.,  221. 

Ludwigsburg  pottery,  219;  por- 
celain, 298. 

Luneville  pottery,  198. 

Lustre,  metallic,  29;  silver,  29; 
platinum,  29. 

Lustred  tiles,  108. 

Lustred  wares,  Saracen,  129;  of 
Italy,  147. 

Lustres  of  Giorgio,  165;  how 
made,  169. 

Lustrous  pottery,  25. 

Luxembourg  pottery,  221  ;  por- 
celain, 301. 

Luynes,  Due  de,  96. 

Luzerne  pottery,  221. 

L  V,  204. 

Lycurgus,  80. 

Lyman,  potter,  404. 

Lyman  &  Fenton,  potters,  404. 

Lyons  pottery,  182,  199. 

Lysippus,  78. 

M,  297,  386. 

Macdonough's  victory,  4lo. 

Machecoul  pottery,  182. 

Macheleidt,  chemist,  invents 
hard-paste  porcelain,  298. 

Macon  pottery,  211. 

Macquer,  chemist,  275. 

Madreperla  lustre,  147,  162. 

Madrid  porcelain,  271. 

Magi,  98. 

Magna  Graecia,  88,  91. 

Majolica,  definition  of,  27 ;  deri- 
vation of,  137;  forms  of,  145; 
confined  to  lustred  wares,  170. 

Majorca,  pottery,  97,  129,  137; 
commerce  of,  139  ;  conquered 
by  Pisans,  139  ;  wares  called 
majolica,  138. 

Malaga  pottery,  134. 

Malatesta  court,  154. 

Malicorne  pottery,  211. 

Malvern  Abbey  tiles,  311. 

Manardi  sisters,  potters,  174. 

Manises  pottery,  136,  180. 

Man. jack,  G.,  potter,  219. 

Marans  pottery,  199. 

Marburg  pottery,  220. 

Marc  Antonio,  1  59,  160. 

Marco   Polo  describes   porcelain, 

262. 

Marcolini  establishes  a  pottery, 
219;   director,  2S9. 

Marieberg  pottery,  225  ;  porce- 
lain, 301. 

Mariette  Hey,  33. 

Marignac  pottery,  211. 

Marini  Dionigi,  potter,  174. 


INDEX. 


525 


Marinoni,  Simone,  potter,  171. 

Marks,  tables  of,  433. 

.Man-on,  Madame  de,  199. 

Marryat,  Mr.,  6,  159,  163,  2 72. 

Marseilles  pottery,  199;  porce- 
lain, 284. 

Marshall  &  Co.,  potters,  386. 

Martabani,  118. 

Martin,  Michael,  painter,  203. 

Marum,  Van,  potter,  463. 

Marx,  Christoph,  potter,  216,  297. 

Marzi,  Alfonso,  potter,  164. 

Mason,  Charles  James,  potter, 
352;  Miles,  potter,  351;  & 
Co.,  potters,  351. 

Mason's  Cambrian  Argil,  386. 

Masonic  emblems  on  pottery,  362. 

Mascpielier,  Jacques,  potter,  L98. 

Massie,  potter,  198,284. 

Mathaut  pottery,  211. 

Matteo,  potter,  163. 

Matthews,  W.,  potter,  352. 

■Maubree,  decorator,  Hon. 

Maurienne  potterv,  177;  marks, 
449. 

Mavence  pottery,  219. 

Mayer,  J.  J.,  potter,  297;  E., 
potter,  347 ;  E.,  &  Son,  347 ; 
Joseph,  &  Co.,  347;  Thomas, 
potter,  351 ;  &  Newbold,  pot- 
ters, 353. 

Mayr  &  Newbd,  353. 

M.  C.  over  A,  270. 

Media,  98. 

Medieean  porcelain,  1 15,  263. 

Medina,  tiles  at,  101. 

Medresse  Ilanym,  102. 

Meigh,  Job,  potter,  347;  Job, 
junior,  potter,  347  ;  &  Wal- 
thall, potters,  347. 

Meigh,  mark,  347. 

Meillonas  pottery,  199. 

Meissen.     See  Dresden. 

Mejigorie  pottery,  491. 

Melchior,  modeller,  219,  297. 

Melun  pottery,  211. 

Menneey-Villeroy  porcelain,  271. 

Menten,  Peter,  218. 

Merault,  chemist  and  potter,  303. 

Mercati,  Giovanni  Battista,  paint- 
er, 170. 

MeiTmo,  Guido,  160. 

Mesch,  potter,  461. 

Metallic  decorations,  28. 

Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art,  55, 
87,  '.»!,  249. 

Mettlaeh  mark,   167. 
Meudon  pottery,  211. 

Mexico,  pottery,  388. 

Meyer,  Caspar,  potter,  220;  Die 
trich,  artist,  220;  Johann  Ja- 
cob, potter  ?  216. 
Mez/.a-majolica,  113,  162. 
Mica  in  pottery,  398. 


Middeldyk,  potter,  463. 
Milan  pottery,  175;  mark-.  I  19, 
Milde,  Jacobus  de,  potter,  461. 
Miles,  potter,  386;  Thomas,  pot- 
ter, 386. 
Millin,  96. 
Millingeu,  96. 
Milson,  potter,  386. 
Minard,  potter,  208. 
Ming  Dynasty,  work  of,  236,  241 ; 

wares    reproduced    in   Japan, 

257. 
Minton,,  Herbert,    potter,    350 ; 

Thomas,  potter,  350. 
Missouri  ancient  pottery,  397. 
Mist,  potter,  386. 
Mitchell,  John,  potter,  344. 
M.  N.,  386. 
M.  &  N.,  353. 
Moab,  pottery  of,  68. 
Mohammed,  tomb  of,  101. 
Mohgrabbin  potterv,  131. 
M  o  L,  301. 

Moncloa  porcelain,  272. 
Monnier,  potter,  283. 
Monseau,   R.   &  E.,   decorators, 

197. 
Monte  Feltro,  mark  assigned  to, 

437. 
Montefeltro,  Federigo  da,  155. 
Monte  Lupo  pottery,  154. 
Montereau  pottery,  199. 
Montigny  pottery,  211. 
Montmorencv,the  Constable,  190, 

205. 
Montpellier  pottery,  201. 
Monument  of  Henry  IV.  at  Bres- 

lau,  213. 
Moore  &  Co.,  potters,  369. 
Moreau,  Marie,  potter,  272. 
Morgan,  Mr.  James  De,  lustre  of, 

170. 
Moriah,  side  of,  102. 
Morley,  potter,  342. 
Morreine,  A.,  potter,  204. 
Morris,  G.  A.,  potter, 402. 
Morse  sale  prices,   125. 
Mortlock  mark,  368. 
Mortlock's  Cadogan  mark,  368. 
Mor\ iedro  pottery,  136. 
Moscow  pottery,  226;  enamelled 

bricks,  226  ;   porcelain,  302. 
Moseley,  potter,  :>86. 
Moses  a  correct  historian,  45. 
Mosque,  the    Blue,  of  Tabreez, 
101  ;  of  Nice,  101  ;  of  [coni 

um,    KM  ;    of   Omar,    102  ;    of 

Suleiman,  107 ;  of  Cordova, 
L08  ;  of  St.  Sophia,  128. 
Mosques  with  tiles,  mi,  102, 
1 1  (7,  H>S,  128;  at  Xatin/.,  of 
the  twelfth  century,  Ml. 
Mottoes  on  old  English  potte- 
ries, 315. 


Mouffle  furnace,  29. 

Moulding  vases,  28. 

Moulds  for  coins,  93. 

Moulds,   plaster,    introduced    in 

England,  320. 
Moustiers  potterv,  200. 
M.P.  M.,  291. 
Mule's-liver  color,  250. 
Mulhouser,  Pierre,  artist,  300. 
Miiller,  director,  302  ;    Johann, 

213. 

Mummy  case,  42. 
Murcia  pottery,  136. 
Murray's  Hand-book,  128. 
Murs,   Albert,    218;    Johannes, 

2  IS. 
Miismiinster,  tomb  of  Wolfgang 

de,  216. 
Mustapha,  tomb  of,  107. 
Myat,  potter,  386. 
Mvatt,  Joseph,  potter,  351. 
Mvrrhine    vases.   Kin,   112,    11-':. 

137,  246,  261. 

N,  168,  269,  438,  470. 

Nancy  pottery,  201. 

Nankin  porcelain  tower,  249. 

Nantes  pottery,  211;  porcelain, 
284. 

Xantgarw  or  Xantgarrow  porce- 
lain, 372. 

Naples  pottery,  178;  marks,  449, 
451  ;  porcelain,  268. 

Napoleon  and  John  Bull  on  pitch- 
er, 356. 

Narbonne  pottery,  201. 

Xast,  potter,  285. 

Xatin/.,  mosque  at,  101. 

Nativity,  Church  of  the,  126. 

Neale,  I.,  potter,  348. 

Xeale  &  Co.,  potters,  348. 
Neale  >V  Palmer,  potters,  348. 
Neale  &  Wilson,  potters,  348. 
Neeld,  potter,  386. 
Negro  head  in  Peruvian  pottery, 

394. 
Nell,  potter,  386. 
Nelson,    Lord,    at    Copenhagen, 

302;  at  Worcester,  368. 
"Ne  sutor  ultra  crepidam,"  204. 
N'euehatel  pottery,  221. 

Neudech  porcelain,  298. 

Neuwied  Gres,  227. 

Nevers  pottery,  -J"l  ;  various  pot- 
ters and  marks,  457. 

New  Amstel  porcelain,  300. 

Newcastle  pottery,  356,  368. 

.New  England  house,  room  in, 
I2C 

New-Hall  porcelain,  345,  349; 
mark,  349. 

New  York  Hist.  Society,  39,  11. 

Nicola  da  I'rliino,  157. 

Nicoletti,  artist,  175. 


526 


IXDEX. 


Niderviller  pottery,  202 ;  porce- 
lain, 283. 

Niedermeyer,  Joseph,  modeller, 
293. 

Nk'ii,  Chinese  director,  23  t. 

Nigg  Joseph,  artist,  294. 

Nikosthenes,  potter,  81. 

Nimcs  pottery,  21 1. 

Nineveh,  4(1. 

Nini,  Jean  B.,  potter,  197. 

Norman  pottery  in  England,  309. 

Northern  Africa  pottery,  131. 

Norwalk,  Conn.,  pottery,  401. 

Norwich,  Conn.,  pottery,  400. 

Notes  a iid  Queries,  356. 

Nottingham  pottery,  342;  in 
America,  399. 

Nove  pottery,  174;  porcelain, 
27o. 

Nowotny,  A.,  potter,  295. 

Nuremberg  pottery,  213;  porce- 
lain, 29*7 ;  eggs,  214. 

Nurse,  the,  195,  196. 

Nymphenburg  porcelain,  298. 

Nyon  porcelain,  300. 

0,  203. 

( >berdor£  pottery,  217. 

"Odyssey,"  80. 

OgneS  pottery,  211. 

Ohio  ancient  pottery,  398. 

Oinochoe,  82,  85. 

Oiron,  faience  d',  183. 

Oiron  pottery,  210. 

Okosaki  porcelain,  257. 

< >  L,  200. 

Olery,  Joseph,  200. 

Ollivier,  potter,  196. 

Olpe,  82. 

( >mar,  Mosque  of,  102. 

Opaque  china,  371,  372. 

Oporto  porcelain,  272;    pottery, 

181. 
Orange-skin  surface,  250. 
Orleans,  manufacture  du  Due  d', 

284. 
Orleans  pottery,  203;  porcelain, 

2S2. 
Ormazd,  98. 
Osaca  pottery,  258. 
Osirian  figures,  39. 
Ostrich,  eggs  in  mosques,  120; 

works  at  Nevers,  201. 

Outang,  the,  -■>  I. 

On,  the  hermit  potter,  2  12. 

i  >vertoom  pottery,  22  I. 

Owen,  Hugh,  on   Bristol  wares, 

377. 
Oxybaphon,  82,  86. 

ladua  pottery,  1 75 ;  marks,  I  19. 
Painting,  on  pottery,  29;  inven- 
tion of,  75. 
Palissy,  Bernard,  188. 


Palland,Van,  potter,  221. 

Palmer,  potter,  uses  salt  glaze, 
:;  l  s. 

Palmer,  Henry,  potter,  34K;  his 
wife  buys  Wedgwood  wares  to 
copy,  348. 

P  AM,  300. 

Panphaios,  potter,  si. 

Paper-mill,  the  first,  2!:;. 

Papon,  potter,  182. 

Parent,  director,  275. 

Paris,  Roman  pottery  at,  94; 
modern  pottery,  203;  porce- 
lain, 272,  27::,  284  ;  Girolamo 
Delia  Robbia  at,  152. 

Parmigiano,  _ '  >  7 . 

Parrhasius,  78. 

Parsees,  99. 

Parthian,  kingdom,  99  ;  furnaces, 
mentioned  by  Propertius,  262. 

Pasquier,  Claude  Innocent  du, 
potter,  293. 

Passeri,  96,  142,  160,  102,  172. 

Patanazzi  family,  10<>;  Alfonso, 
160;   Vicen/.io,  160. 

Patent  suit  of  Shaw,  320. 

Patras,  potter,  199. 

Pavia  pottery,'  149. 

Pearl-ware,  328,  353. 

Pegu  pottery,  201. 

Peit  Viseer,  artist,  223. 

Pelike,  82. 

Pelissier,  Pierre,  potter,  198,  273. 

Pelleve,  artist,  209. 

Pellipario,  Nicola,  157. 

Pelops,  70. 

Penieaud,  Nardon,  enameller, 
1 90. 

Pennington,  John,  potter,  353, 
355. 

Pennis,  potter,  463. 

Pennsylvania,  Historical  Society 
of,  402. 

Perestinus,  artist  and  potter,  109. 

Perger,  artist,  29 1. 

Perl,  George,  chemist,  294. 

Perrin,  the  widow,  potter,  199, 
284. 

Persia,  history  of,  98 ;  pottery 
and  porcelain  of,  97 ;  porce- 
lain, 100;  in  American  collec- 
tions, 119,  120;  in  Italy,  139; 
marks,  119,  L20,  451;  lion, 
105;   stvles.  In  I. 

Peru  pottery,  388. 

Perugia  pottery,  170. 

Pesaro  pottery,  112,  150,  101; 
marks,  149. 

Peter  the  Great  brings  Delft  pot- 
ters to  Russia,  220. 

Peter  Martin,  potter,  298. 

Peterynck,  potter,  221. 

Petit,  potter  at  Lille,  198. 

Petrus  Andre  Defave,  171. 


Pettit,  Jacob,  potter,  285. 
Pe-tun-tse,  231. 

Plan,  David,  potter,  221  ;  Hans 
II.,  potter,  221  ;  Abraham,  pot- 
ter, 221  ;   family,  potters,  221. 

P.  G.,266. 

Pharmacy  jars,  105. 

Phenicia  pottery,  54. 

Phidias,  75. 

Philadelphia  porcelain,  4u-j  ;  Ex- 
hibition of  1876,  104,  204. 

Phillips,  Mr.  Barnet,  on  Medicean 
porcelain,  204  ;  J.  &  Co.,  pot- 
ters, 369;  &  Co.,  potters,  309. 

Phillips,  potter  at  Lane  Delph, 
352  ;   E.,  potter,  386. 

Phillips,  Edward,  decorator,  350. 

Picehi,  Giorgio,  160. 

Piccolpassi,  164,  169,  171,  172. 

Pictures,  the  first,  75. 

Pidoux,  artist,  199. 

Pie/.zentile,  painter,  170. 

Pigorrv,  potter,  483. 

Pilgrim  bottles,  Egyptian,  42. 

Pink  lustre,  349,  369. 

Pintobasso,  potter,  372. 

Pinxton  porcelain,  271. 

Pipes  crossed,  mark,  220,  484, 
488. 

Pippi,  Giulio,  266. 

Pirkenhamer  porcelain,  295. 

Pisa,  bacini,  142;  pottery,  154; 
mark,  436. 

Pisans  conquer  Majorca,  139. 

Pithos,  84,  91. 

Pizzolo,  Niccolo,  painter,  175. 

Place,  Francis,  potter,  383. 

Plant,  B.,  potter,  386. 

Plants  of  Egypt,  44. 

Plaster  moulds  introduced  in 
England,  320. 

Platinum  lustre,  29. 

Pliny,  100,  112,  113,  137,  240, 
201,  202. 

Plum  color,  250. 

Plymouth  porcelain,  376. 

PI',  207. 

Poirel,  Nicolas,  potter,  206. 

Poitiers  pottery,  204. 

Poland  porcelain,  302;  marks, 
491. 

Polygnotus,  75,  78. 

Pompadour,  Madame  de,  275, 
278. 

Pong-kium-pao,  potter,  241. 

Pons,  Antoine  de,  189. 

Pont  de  Vaux  pottery,  204. 

Pontaillier  pottery,  211. 

Pontanus,  "History  of  Amster- 
dam," 222,210.   " 

Poole,  R.,  potter,  386. 

Popoff,  A.,  potter,  303. 

Porcelain,  definition  of,  20;  va- 
rieties of,  20  ;  how  made,  28  ; 


INDEX. 


52; 


decoration  of,  20  ;  where  first 
made,  100 ;  meaning  of  the 
word,  li:;i  ;  derivation  of  the 
word,  262  ;  invention  of,  231, 
232 ;  first,  at  Ferrara,  262  ; 
first,  at  Venice,  262;  first,  at 
Florence,  '263 ;  Medicean,  263  ; 
discovered  at  Dresden,  286  ; 
first,  in  England,  340  ;  of  the 
Indies,  382. 

"  Poreelaine  des  Indes,"  421; 
de  Monsieur,  282. 

Portland  vase,  334. 

Porto  pottery,  181  ;  porcelain, 
272. 

Portobello  pottery,  501. 

Portugal,  pottery,  181  ;  marks, 
469;  porcelain,  271;  marks, 
471. 

Portuguese  bring  porcelain  to 
Europe,  262. 

Posset-pots,  315. 

Possinger,  artist,  21 6. 

Poterat,  Edme,  or  Esmon,  potter, 
206  ;  Louis,  potter,  274. 

Potter,  .Mr.,  potter,  274. 

Potter's  wheel,  27  ;  in  Egypt,  40. 

Pottery,  definition  of,  24;  varie- 
ties of,  24  ;  earliest  record  of, 
47;  how  made,  27;  decora- 
tion of,  28  ;  ancient,  31 ;  in- 
vention of,  in  China,  231. 

Potts,  C,  &  Son,  potters,  401. 

Poulaine,  Dupre,  potter,  197. 

Poulson,  Joseph,  potter,  350. 

Prague  porcelain,  295. 

Pratt,  Felix,  potter,  351  ;  F.  and 
P.,  &  Co.,  potters,  386. 

Preble,  Com.,  on  pitcher,  502. 

Premieres  pottery,  211. 

Pressel,  potter,  297. 

Prestino,  Maestro,  lf>9. 

Prices,  in  American  shops,  423; 
of  Italian  majolica,  423  ;  of 
faience  d'Oiron,  424  ;  cata- 
logues of,  424;  of  Oriental 
wares,  429. 

Prieur,  Bartholomew,  195. 

Printing  on  enamel,  29,  35  I  ;  in- 
vention of,  claimed  for  Berlin, 
297,  355. 

Prints  relating  to  America,  366, 
361. 

Proehoos,  82,  80. 

Prodigal  Son  teapots,  351. 

Propertius  on  mvrrhine  goblets, 
100,  262. 

Proskau  pottery,  219. 

Proverb  derived  from  potter; 
dogs,  198. 

Pulinx,  Henri,  potter,  461. 

Pulpit  at  Strehla,  217. 

Piiy-de-Domc  pottery,  197. 

Puzzle  cups,  67. 


Puzzle  jugs,  315. 

Puzzle    rhyme    on    beer-mug, 

356. 
Pynaker,  potter,  461. 
Pyramid  of  Cheops,  32. 
Pyrrhic  dance,  89. 

Queen's -ware,  origin   of  name, 

320  ;  in  America,  400,  402. 
Quimper  pottery,  204. 

R.  2u4,  299. 

bat  le,  Leonard,  potter,  204. 

Rafaelli,  Signor,  164. 

Etaffaele  Girolamo,  artist,  154. 

Raffaelle  dal  Colle,  145,  161. 

Raffaelle  ware,  160. 

Raffey,  artist,  294. 

Raimondi,  Mare  Antonio,  159, 
loo,  207. 

Hajolas,  135. 

Rambervilliers  pottery,  211. 

Raphael  Sanzio,  152,  150,  159, 
100. 

Raphael  and  Fornarina  dish,  154. 

Ratisbon.     See  Regensburg. 

Rato  pottery,  181. 

Rauenstein  porcelain,  299. 

Ravenet,  engraver,  355. 

Ravenna  pottery,  172. 

Ravier,  Jacipies  M.,  potter,  199. 

Rawlinson,  Sir  II.,  48. 

Rayonnant  style,  206. 

Real  iron-stone  china,  408. 

Reaumur's  porcelain,  273. 

Rebus  decoration  011  porcelain, 
299. 

Regensburg,  (ires,  227;  porce- 
lain, 299. 

Regiomontanus,  213. 

Reguault,  director,  277. 

Regnier,  director,  275. 

Rehoboam,  42. 

Reichembach,  potter,  295. 

Reid,  W.,  iV  Co.,  potters,  353, 
356. 

Remeses  II.,  statue  of,  33. 

Renac  pottery,  204. 

Rennes  pottery,  204. 

Reproductions  of  old  Chinese 
ware,  234  ;  of  an  old  vase  of 
Linn',  2  12  ;  of  Chinese  wares 
in  Japan,  257. 

bevel  pottery,  226. 

Reverend,  Claude,  potter,  20:;, 
273. 

R.g.,299. 

R.  II.,  366. 

Phages,  tiles  of,  101,  112. 

Rhodes,  ancient  pottery,  89,  127; 
Saracen  pottery,  97,  127  ;  tiles 
for  Mosque  of  St.  Sophia  made 
at.  128;  other  tiles,  108;  his- 
tory, 129 ;  marks,  151. 


Rhymes,  on  pottery,  315  ;  on  Liv- 
erpool wares,  356. 

Rhyton,  82,85,  86. 

Richus  &  Toft,  potters,  386. 

Rickett  sale  prices,  425. 

Ridgway,  W.,  Son,  &  Co.,  potters, 
348;  Morley,Wear,&  Co., 349; 
Job  &  Sons,  potters,  349  ;  John, 
potter,  349  ;  William,  potter, 
349. 

Ridolfo,  Jacques  and  Loys,  pot- 
ters, 182. 

Ries,  modeller,  297. 

Rigne  pottery,  210. 

Riley,  John  &  Richard,  potters, 
345. 

Riley  mark,  345. 

Riley's  semi-stone  china,  345. 

Rimini,  pottery,  172  ;  marks,  447  ; 
vases  from,  142. 

Ring,  Joseph,  potter,  380. 

Ringler,  potter,  297,  298. 

Riocreux,  M.,  133,  280. 

Rioz  pottery,  204. 

R.  M.  W.  &  Co.,  349. 

R— n,  299. 

Robbia,  Luca  Delia,  141, 144;  en- 
amel used  by,  145;  works  of, 
149;  Andrea,  151,  145;  Luca 
2d,    151  ;    AgOStiDO,    15(1,    15]  ; 

Ottaviano,  151;  Giovanni,  151, 
152;  Girolamo,  151;  Girola- 
mo, in  Paris,  189. 

Robert,  director,  277  ;  J.  G.,  pot- 
ter, 199,  284. 

Robinson  Crusoe  flip-can,  342. 

Robinson,  Mr.  J.  C,  133,150,  L58, 
164,  169. 

Rochchouart,  101. 

Rochelle,  La.  pottery,  205. 

Rockingham  pottery,  368. 

Rcerder,  S.  Piet,  potter,  461. 

Rogers,  John  \  George,  potters, 
345. 

Rogers  mark,  :;  15. 

Rolet,  potter;  161,  l7o. 

Holland,  potter,  210. 

Romagna  pottery,  112. 

Roman,  lamps,  94  ;  pottery  in 
Cyprus,  57 ;  pottery  in  Eng- 
land, 309. 

Romano,  Giulio,  200. 

Home,  ancient  pottery,  92  ;  mod- 
ern pottery,  1  72  ;   marks,  I  15. 

Romeli,  Johanu  Conrad,  potter, 
210,,  297. 

boos,  Thomas,  potter,  813. 
Rorstrand  pottery,  225. 
Rosa,  Matthias,  potter,  218. 

Hove,  iii  Persian  paintings,  b'l  ; 
I  Mi  liarri  color,  280;  Pompa- 
dour color,  280. 

Hose.  John,  potter,  363  ;  Thomas, 
painter,  381, 


528 


INDEX. 


Rosellini  finds  Chinese  porcelain 

in  Egypt,  286. 
[lothenburg,  potter,  299. 
Rouen   pottery,  205;   porcelain, 

273,  274. 
Rouquet,  on  transfer   printing, 

355. 
Rouse  &  Turner,  potters,  404. 
Roussencq,  J.  P.,  potter,  199. 
Rovere,  Francesco  Maria   della, 

L56. 
Rovigo,  Francesco  Xantoda,  158. 
R.  R.,  298. 

Rubate,  Pasquale,  artist,  176. 
Rubbed  with  gold,  252. 
Ruby  lustre,  165. 
Rudolstadt  porcelain,  298. 
Rue  Hue  factory  at  Rennes,  204. 
Ruminhauy,  head  of,  in  Peruvian 

pottery,  394. 
Rummel,  potter,  220. 
Russia,  potterv,  226;  porcelain, 

302. 
R.  V.  A.,  172. 

S,  219,  295,  302,363. 

Sadat,  Said,  102. 

Sadirac  pottery,  182. 

Sadler,  John,  potter,  353  ;  in- 
vents transfer  printing,  354. 

Saguntum,  135. 

Saillv,  Thomas,  potter,  210. 

St.  Albans,  tiles  of,  310. 

St.  Amand,  potterv,  207 ;  porce- 
lain, 284. 

St.  Anthony's,  pottery,  368. 

St.  Clement,  pottery,  211. 

St.  Cloud,  pottery,  208;  porce- 
lain, 272. 

St.  Jerome  and  lion,  266. 

St.  Jerome,  Preacher  of  the  Judg- 
ment, 2C>7. 

St.  John,  Church  of  the  Knights 
of,  iit  Villingen,  216. 

St.  Mark  and  lion,  266. 

St.  Mark  on  stove  tile,  215. 

St.  Omer  pottery,  211. 

St.    Petersburg,     pottery,    226 ; 

porcelain,  302. 
St.  Paul,  pottery,  208  ;   convent 

tiles  of,  212. 
St.  Quirico  potterv,  170;  marks, 

1  19. 
St.  Sophia,  Church  of,  ins  ;  tiles 

<»f,  128. 
Sainte  Foy  pottery,  208. 
Saintes  pottery,  207. 
Sakkara,  Pyramid  of,  39. 
Saladin,  Louis,  potter,  197. 
Salamanca,  Antonio,  267. 
Sales,  price-  at,  124. 
Salmazzo,  Gio.  Maria,  potter,  174. 
Salomone,  potter,   171;    Girola- 

1110,  artist,  lsu. 


Salopian  wares,  362. 
Salt,  Ralph,  potter,  348. 
Salt-glaze  discovered,  317. 
Salvetat,  M.,  255. 
Salzman,  M.,  129. 
Samadet  pottery,  208. 
Samarcand,  tiles  at,  101. 
Samian  ware,  89,  93,  94,  309. 
Samos,  pottery  of,  88. 
San  Felipe  pottery,  135. 
Sans,  William,  potter,  317. 
Santa  Casa,  173  ;  majolica,  160. 
Saracen  art,  influence  of,  in  Eu 

rope,  141  ;  in  Germany,  212. 
Saracen,  pottery,  97;  tiles,  100; 

architecture,  101 ;    commerce, 

139  ;    patterns  in  Italy,   14:'.; 

enamels    older  than   Chinese, 

232;  marks,  451. 
Sargadelos  porcelain,  272. 
Sarreguemines  pottery,  208. 
Sassanian  coffins,  50,  101. 
Sassuolo,  Pietro  da,  potter,  164. 
Sassuolo  pottery,  177. 
Satsuma,  or  Satsma,  pottery,  257. 
Savignies,  vases  de,  196. 
Savino,  Paolo,  potter,  172. 
Savona  pottery,  179 ;  marks,  4  19. 
Savsk  porcelain,  302. 
Savy,  Honore,  potter,  199,  284. 
Saxon  pottery  in  England,  309. 
Saxon  v.     See  Dresden. 
S.  &  B.,  386. 
S.&  Co.,  386. 
Scaliger,  J.  C,  137,  261. 
Scarabaeus,  forms  of,  38. 
Sceaux  pottery,  208  ;  porcelain, 

282. 
Schaffhausen  potterv,  217. 
Schallez,  artist,  291. 
Schaper,  Johann,   glass -painter 

1  ii<  1  potter,  217. 
Schelstadt  potterv,  212. 
Schindler,  artist,  294. 
Schlakenwald  porcelain,  295. 
Schramberg  pottery,  219. 
Schreitzheim  pottery,  218. 
Scott  mark,  369. 
Scyphos,  82. 
Scythians,  99. 

Seeger,  Joseph,  painter,  203. 
Seggars,  definition  of,  28. 
Selkirk,  Alexander,  flip-can,  312. 
Seltzmann,    Hans,    Mayor,    and 
potter,  217. 

Selucidae,  99. 

"Semi-transparent  china,"  350. 

Sepulchral  vases,  41,  86. 

"Se  regarder  en  chiens  de  fai- 
ence," 198. 

Serica,  99. 

Serpent-skin  color,  250. 

Seville,  potterv,  180;  porcelain, 
272. 


Sevres,  potterv,  209;   porcelain, 

275;   marks,  2S1,  473  ;   coun- 
terfeits of,  282;   marks   used 
by  artists,  475;  porcelain,  dec- 
orated in  New  York,  405. 
Sewells  &  Co.,  potters,  369. 

Sew  ells  &  Doilkill,  potters,  369. 
S.  F.  C,  175. 

Sgraffiato  ware,  62, 142, 143, 14.x, 
393,398. 

Shakspeare,  156. 
Sharpe,  potter,  387. 
Shaw,  potter,   197;    Ralph,  pot- 
ter, 320;  Thomas,  potter,  35::. 

Shaw's  specimens  of  tiles,  310. 

Shawls,  head-work,  38. 

Shelton  pottery  and  porcelain, 
349. 

Shiba  pottery,  258. 

Shinar,  land  of,  47. 

Shishak,  42. 

Shoemaker  a  potter,  204. 

Shonsui,  Japanese  potter,  264  : 
his  works  prized,  265. 

Shore,  J.,  &  Co.,  potters,  386. 

Shorthose,  J.,  potter,  348  ;  &  Co., 
potters,  348,  387;  &  Heath, 
potters,  348,  387. 

Siam,  porcelain  of,  118. 

Sibury  &  Bridgwood,  potters,  386. 

Sicily"  pottery,"  129,  136. 

Siculo-Arabian  pottery,  136. 

Siculo-Moresque,  136. 

Siena  potterv,  154  ;  marks,  436, 
449. 

Sieou,  the  sisters,  241. 

Sign  of  life.     See  Swastika. 

Silentiarius,  Paul,  128. 

Silvano,  Francesco,  potter,  160. 

Silver  decorations,  29. 

Silver  lustre,  29  ;  first,  in  Eng- 
land, 351. 

Silver-rubbed  vases,  252. 

Sincenj  pottery,  209. 

Sing-eul,  "the  younger  brother," 
240. 

Sing-i,  "  the  elder  brother,"  240. 

Sismondi,  139,  156. 

Sleeping  slave,  87. 

S.  M.,  174. 

Smith,  George,  49;  Major  Mur- 
doch, 109;  Mrs.  Joseph,  Bris- 
tol service  presented  her  by 
Burke,  379;  T.  G,  &  Sons,  pot- 
ters, 4<)4. 

Smithsonian  Institution,  397. 

Sneyd,  T.,  potter,  387. 

Snitzer,  potter,  387. 

Soft  pottery,  21. 

Sol't-paste  porcelain,  2(1. 

Soliva,  artist,  180. 

Solobrin,  Jerome,  potter,  182. 

Solomon  sale  prices,  425. 

Solomon's  knot  mark,  180. 


INDEX. 


529 


Song  of  the  furnace,  88. 

Soqui,  decorator,  376. 

Sorgenthal,  Baron  de,  293. 

Souffle  color,  how  produced,  251. 

Souroux,  potter,  483. 

Southwick  pottery,  368. 

S.  P.,  209. 

Spaandonck,  potter,  463. 

Spain,  pottery,  97,  133,  180; 
marks,  469;  porcelain,  271; 
tiles  in,  108;  Moors  in,  133. 

Sped,  widow,  potter,  299. 

S.  P.  P.,  435. 

S.  P.  Q.  F.,  153. 

S.  P.  R.,  435. 

Spode,  Josiah,  potter,  350 ;  Jo- 
siah,  junior,  potter,  350;  Sam- 
uel, potter,  352. 

Sprig  patterns,  364. 

Spriinont,  Nicholas,  potter,  375. 

Squier,  E.  G.,  391,  395. 

Srai,  1 1 6. 

Staffordshire  potteries,  314. 

Stag's  horns  mark,  219. 

Stamnos,  82. 

Stamps  on  Roman  pottery,  92. 

Stanniferous  enamel,  25 ;  in 
Egypt,  36;  in  Italy,  144;  in 
Germany,  213. 

Star  mark,  456,  470. 

States,  Adam,  potter,  401 ;  Adam 
2d,  401 ;  Joseph,  potter,  401. 

Statues  in  pottery,  92. 

Statuettes,  old  Italian,  178. 

Steam  in  potteries,  30. 

Steamboat  Chief-Justice  Marshall 
on  pottery,  344. 

Steatite,  enamelled,  35. 

Steel,  potter,  387. 

Steele,  Daniel,  potter,  344. 

Steen,  -Ian,  artist,  223. 

Stenzel,  workman,  goes  to  Vien- 
na, 293. 

Stephens,  William,  decorator,  380. 

Stevenson,  W.,  potter,  348;  & 
Hancock,  potters,  369. 

Stimraer,  Tobias,  artist,  217,  221. 

Stockton  pottery,  368. 

Stoke  -  upon  -  Trent  pottery  ami 
porcelain,  350. 

Stone,  Coquerel  Le  Gros,  197. 

Stone-ware,  German,  226;  fine, 
226  ;  influence  on  German  ar- 
tisans, 228  ;  influence  in  Eng- 
land, 2S0;  English  derived 
from  Germany,  230;  in  Eng- 
land, 314;  red  of  Japan,  258. 

Stonington  pitcher,  361. 

Storkhulm  mark,  469. 

Stoves,  pottery,  204,  212,  217; 
in  Switzerland,  220;  by  Eans 
Kraut,  216;  celebrated  stove 
at  Sal /.bur-   215. 

Stralsund  pottery,  220. 


Strasbourg,  pottery,  209  ;  porce- 
lain, 285. 

Stratford-le-Bow.     See  Bow. 

Straw  in  brick,  37. 

Strepla  pottery,  217. 

Stroebel,  painter,  2 1 6. 

Strunz,  Jo.  Heinrich,  potter,  216. 

Styles  first  formed,  57;  dates 
of  Greek,  78;  Doric,  5s,  73; 
Egyptian,  73;  Carthaginian, 
73 ;  Corinthian,  73. 

Suleiman,  Mosque  of,  107. 

Sun,  the,  mark,  482. 

Sunderland,  pottery,  368  ;  wares, 
356. 

Surahai,  the,  116. 

Swansea,  363 ;  porcelain  and 
pottery,  371. 

Swastika,  the,  61,  254. 

Sweden  pottery,  225;  marks, 469; 
porcelain,  301. 

Switzerland,  pottery,  220 ;  porce- 
lain, 300. 

Swords  crossed,  mark,  291,  486, 
494,  496,  498. 

Symbols,  of  Mesopotamia,  46; 
Phenician,  61 ;  Chinese,  254. 

Symposium,  89. 

S  X.,  455. 

T,  387. 

Table  porcelain,  408. 

Tailor  and  wife,  Dresden  group, 
290. 

Talavera  pottery,  136,  180. 

Talor,  William,  potter,  317. 

Tanagra  figures,  87. 

Tardessir,  potter,  199. 

Tariff,  American,  416. 

Tarlton  pitcher,  361. 

Tartary,  98. 

Tatzen,  .Michael  Melchior,  potter 
and  sculptor,  217. 

Tauber,  artist,  216. 

Tavernes,  pottery  of,  201. 

T.  B.,  181. 

Teapots  first  made,  223. 

Technology,  24. 

Teeth  first  painted,  75,  77. 

Teinitz  pottery,  220. 

Telegraph  of  Ralph  Wedgwood, 
321. 

Tel-el- Yahoudeh,  39. 

Tempesta,  copies  of,  on  pottery, 
199,  200. 

Temple  at  Kuriuin,  55,  76,  77. 

Templeton,  Lady,  329. 

Terchi,  Bartolomeo,  potter,  170. 

Terchi  brothers,  potters  at  Ven- 
ice, 174. 

Terenzio,  potter,  163. 

Ter  Fehn,  artist,  223. 

Ter  Bimpelen,  artist,  223. 

Terra-cotta,  28. 

34 


Terraglia,  269. 

Terraglia  verniciata,  172. 

Terre  de  Saint  Esprit,  1 99. 

Tcrvueren  pottery,  221. 

T.  H.  &  0.,  387. 

Thang,  Chinese  director,  234. 

Theophilus,  the  monk,  142. 

"Thick-head"  figures  of  Hochst, 
297. 

Thion,  potter,  455. 

Thionville  pottery,  211. 

Thouars,  183;  pottery,  210. 

Throwing  pottery,  40. 

Thuringian  factories,  298. 

Thurstield,  John,  potter,  362. 

Thymiaterion,  82. 

Tiles,  Egyptian,  39 ;  Saracen,  100 
on  mosques,  101 ;  lustred,  108 
St.  Sophia,  12S;  at  Padua,  175 
at  Lille,  198;  in  Spain,  181 
for  stoves,  211,  212,  215;  in 
America, 223;  in  England, 310. 

Tilewright,  name,  3 10. 

Timagoras,  potter,  81. 

Timour,  102. 

Tin  in  Egypt,  42. 

Tischbein^  96. 

Tlenpolemos,  potter,  82. 

Toad,  form  of  lamp,  43. 

Tobys,  229. 

Toft,  Thomas,  potter,  316; 
Ralph,  potter,  317. 

Toledo  pottery,  136. 

Tomb  of  Mohammed,  101;  of  Bfus- 
tapha,  107;  by  Hans  Kraut  at 
Yillingen,  216. 

Tombs,  at  Beni-Hassan,  40;  at 
Alexandria,  41  ;  Greek,  86 ; 
of  Kameiros,  127. 

Tomlinson,  William,  potter,  384. 

Tooke  on  Russia,  226. 

Torches,  two,  mark,  28  I. 

Tortoise-shell  ware,  320,  325. 

Toul  pottery,  196. 

Tour  d'Aigues  pottery,  196. 

Tournay,  pottery,  221  ;  porcelain, 
301. " 

Tours,  pottery,  196,  210;  porce- 
lain, 283. 

Tower  mark,  271.  301,   182,   190. 

Tower  of  porcelain  in  China, 249. 

Toys,  Phenician,  67. 

T.  R.  with  crown,  489. 

Transfer  printing,  29,  364. 

Transmission  of  art  of  enamel, 
loo. 

Trefoil  mark,  188. 

Trenton  pottery,  404. 

Treviso  pottery,  174;  marks, 
149;   porcelain,  271. 

Triangle,  impressed,  mark,  376, 
376,492. 

Tripoli,  Preble's  attack,  on  pitch- 
er, 502. 


530 


INDEX. 


Trou,  potter,  208,  272;  Gabriel, 

potter,    272 ;    Henri,    potter, 

272. 
Troy,  Last  Night  of,  78,  79. 
Trumbull,  Mr.  G.,  120. 
Truro  sale  prices,  125. 
Tschimhaus,  chemist,  286. 
Tucker,  Benjamin,  potter,  403; 

William  Ellis,  potter,  403;  & 

Hemphill,  potters,  403. 
Tunis  pottery,  131. 
Tunstall  pottery,  345. 
Turin  pottery,  177;  marks,  449; 

porcelain,  271. 
Turkish  pottery,  132. 
Turner,  John,  potter,  352 ;  John, 

2d,  potter,  352  ;    mark,  383  ; 

Ralf,    potter,    387;    William, 

potter,  352  ;   Thomas,  potter, 

362. 
Turner's  patent,  mark,  352. 
Tumor,  Ralph,  potter,  317. 
Twemlow,  T.,  potter,  350. 
Twyford,    Joseph,    potter,    319, 

3*49. 
Tyg,  the,  312. 

Ugogo  pottery,  132- 

Ujiji  pottery,  132. 

I'liii  pottery,  220. 

Pnaker,  Cherokee  name  of  kao- 
lin, 374. 

Unglazed  pottery,  24. 

United  States,  pottery  and  porce- 
lain in,  399. 

U rhino  pottery,  154  ;  marks, 
441,  443. 

Urse  Graff,  165. 

Urukh,  King,  47. 

Utzchneider,  Paul,  potter,  208. 

Uzzano,  Bernardi  da,  139. 

V,  271. 

V.  A.,  272. 

Valencia  pottery,  135,  181. 

Valencien,  mark,  485. 

Valenciennes,      pottery,      210  ; 

porcelain,  283. 
Valognes  porcelain,  283. 
Vambery,  Mr.,  101. 
Vandepopeliere,    Marie,    potter, 

198. 
Varages  pottery,  201. 
Varsanni,  artist,  294. 
Vasa  murrhina.     See  Myrrhine 

vases. 
Vasari,  144,  150,263. 
Vase,  the  Francois,  81;  of  the 

Alh bra,  133. 

Vases  made  by  air  pressure,  277. 
Vassillieva  pottery,  226, 
Vaucouleurs  pottery,  211. 
Vaux  porcelain,  288. 
Vecchio,  del,  F.,  potter,  178. 


Vehlcn,  Ant.  Bern,  von,  'J is. 

Vengobechea,  Gaberil,  potter, 
224. 

Venice  pottery,  174;  marks, 
447,  449  ;  porcelain,  262,  269  ; 
invented  by  unknown  old  ar- 
tist, 262. 

Verboom,  Abraham,  artist,  223. 

Verburg,  potter,  463. 

Verneuilles,  potter,  283. 

Verona  pottery,  1 75 ;  marks,  449. 

Verstelle,  potter,  463. 

Vezzi  brothers,  potters,  269. 

Vicenza  earth,  148. 

Vielsdorf,  Kloster,  porcelain,  489. 

Vienna  porcelain,  293. 

Vieux  Sevres,  275. 

Villers  Cotterets  pottery,  211. 

Villingen  pottery,  216. 

V  I  N,  168. 

Vincennes,  pottery,  210;  porce- 
lain, 274,  283. 

Vincenzio,  Maestro,  160;  mark, 
439. 

Violins  of  pottery,  223. 

Violon,  Le,  de  Faience,  223. 

Visscher,  Peter,  iron-worker,  214. 

Vista  Alegre  porcelain,  272. 

Viterbo pottery,  173;  marks, 4  13. 

Vitry,  Gaspard,  decorator,  200. 

VN,  271,471. 

Vogt,  Adam,  potter,  217. 

Volkof,  M.,  potter,  302. 

Volkstadt  porcelain,  299. 

Volpato,  Giovanni,  potter,  172. 

Voyez,  J.,  potter,  346 ;  counter- 
feits Wedgwood,  333. 

W,  220,  295,  296,  300. 

W  (*  *  *)  mark,  387. 

Wackenfeld,  Jean  Henri,  potter, 
209. 

Wadgwood,  333. 

Wagstaff,  potter,  387. 

Walker,  Brown,  &  Co.,  potters, 
380. 

Walker,  G.,  potter,  372. 

Wall,  Dr.  John,  potter,  364. 

Wall  decoration,  with  plates,  etc., 
415. 

Wallendorf  porcelain,  299. 

Wallis  &  Bemrose,  on  Derbyshire 
wares,  870. 

Walls,  enamelled,  48,  67. 

Walton,  John,  potter,  345. 

Walton  mark,  345. 

Wamps,  potter,  198. 

Warburton,  Peter,  potter,  349; 
John,  potter,  846  ;  Mrs.,  pot- 
ter and  decorator,  346. 

Warburton,  potter,  368. 

Warka,  coffins  at,  50. 

Warner,  Mr.  0.   D.,  38,  105. 

Washington,  ovals  of,  348. 


Washington  pitchers,  series  of, 

357 ;  prints,  352. 

\\  atches,  the  first,  214. 

W.  &  B.,  387. 

Wcatherbv,  potter,  373. 

Webber,  Henry,  modeller,  338. 

Wech,  artist,  294. 

Wedgwood  family,  320;  various 
potters  of  the  family,  321,  322, 
323,  324,  384  ;  Ralph  invents 
electric  telegraph,  321. 

Wredgwood,  Josiah,  wares  of, 
322;  life  and  history,  323; 
various  wares,  325,  327,  328, 
332,  334;  imitations  of  his 
wares,  179,  219,  272,  274, 
293,  333;  marks  and  forger- 
ies, 332 ;  Voyez  counterfeits, 
346. 

Wedgwoods,  potters  in  York- 
shire, 385. 

Wedgwood,  F.,  a  mark,  384. 

Wedgwood  &  Co.,  321,  333,  384. 

Wedgwood,  J.,  a  mark,  333. 

Wedgewood,  a  mark,  333. 

Weesp  porcelain,  224,  300. 

Wegeley,  W.,  potter,  296. 

Welby,  potter,  220. 

Westminster  Chapter-house  tiles, 
311. 

Wheel  mark,  219. 

Wheel,  the  potter's,  27,  40. 

Whieldon,  Thomas,  potter,  323, 
351. 

Whitehead,  Christopher  C,  pot- 
ter, 347. 

Wilcox,  Mrs.,  decorator,  375. 

Willingen.     See  Villingen,  216. 

Willow  pattern,  362. 

Wilson,  mark,  348;  Robert,  pot- 
ter, 348. 

Wine  mingled  with  myrrh,  262. 

Wintergurst  family,  potters,  218. 

Winterthur  pottery,  220. 

Wire  frame  to  hang  plates,  415. 

Wirksworth  pottery,  369. 

Wolfe  &  Hamilton,  potters,  351. 

Wolfe,  Thomas,  potter,  351. 

Wood  &  Caldwell,  potters,  343. 

Wood,  E.,  &  Sons,  potters,  343; 
Aaron,  potter,  342 ;  Enoch, 
potter,  343;  Ralph,  potter, 
342;  William,  modeller,  338; 
mark,  502. 

Wood-cuts  copied  on  pottery, 
153,  165,  185. 

Wooilen  trenchers,  311. 

Worcester  porcelain,  364. 

Worthington  it  Co.,  potter-.  356. 

W.R.,  341. 

W.  R.,  with  crown,  489. 

W.  R.  cv:  Co.,  387. 

W.  S.  &  Co.,  387. 

W.  T.,  317. 


INDEX. 


531 


W.  T.  &  Co.,  387. 
Wiirtemberg  pottery,  218. 
Wurzburg  pottery,  220. 

X,  173. 

Xanto,  Francesco,  158. 

Xativa  pottery,  135. 


Yarmouth  pottery,  383. 
Fates,  J.,  potter,  386. 
York  pottery,  383. 
Young,  W.  W.,  decorator,  371. 

Z,  467. 


Zeisler,  painter  and  potter,  298.    Zurich  porcelain,  300. 


Zerder,  Heinrich,  potter,  293. 
Zerin,  Nestorian  village,  238. 
Zeschinger,  artist,  219. 
Zeuxis,  78,  79. 
Zoroaster,  98. 
Zucaro,  Taddeo,  145. 


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7° 


:.«&! 


.  i 


